Part 1501

<p><b>2.</b> <def>The act of slaughtering; the act of killing cruelly and needlessly.</def>

<blockquote>That dreadful <b>butchering</b> of one another. <i>Addison.</i></blockquote>

<h1>Butcherliness</h1> <Xpage=196>

<hw>Butch"er*li*ness</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <def>Butchery quality.</def>

<h1>Butcherly</h1> <Xpage=196>

<hw>Butch"er*ly</hw>, <tt>a.</tt> <def>Like a butcher; without compunction; savage; bloody; inhuman; fell.</def> "The victim of a <i>butcherly</i> murder."

<i>D. Webster.</i>

<blockquote>What stratagems, how fell, how <b>butcherly</b>, This deadly quarrel daily doth beget! <i>Shak.</i></blockquote>

<h1>Butcher's broom</h1> <Xpage=196>

<hw>Butch"er's broom`</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>. <fld>(Bot.)</fld> <def>A genus of plants (<spn>Ruscus</spn>); esp. <spn>R. aculeatus</spn>, which has large red berries and leaflike branches. See <er>Cladophyll</er>.</def>

<h1>Butchery</h1> <Xpage=196>

<hw>Butch"er*y</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <ety>[OE. <ets>bocherie</ets> shambles, fr. F. <ets>boucherie</ets>. See <er>Butcher</er>, <tt>n.</tt>]</ety> <p><b>1.</b> <def>The business of a butcher.</def> <mark>[Obs.]</mark>

<p><b>2.</b> <def>Murder or manslaughter, esp. when committed with unusual barbarity; great or cruel slaughter.</def>

<i>Shak.</i>

<blockquote>The perpetration of human <b>butchery</b>. <i>Prescott.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>3.</b> <def>A slaughterhouse; the shambles; a place where blood is shed.</def> <mark>[Obs.]</mark>

<blockquote>Like as an ox is hanged in the <b>butchery</b>. <i>Fabyan.</i></blockquote>

<syn>Syn. -- Murder; slaughter; carnage. See <er>Massacre</er>.</syn>

<h1>Butler</h1> <Xpage=196>

<hw>But"ler</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <ety>[OE. <ets>boteler</ets>, F. <ets>bouteillier</ets> a bottle-bearer, a cupbearer, fr. LL. <ets>buticularius</ets>, fr. <ets>buticula</ets> bottle. See <er>Bottle</er> a hollow vessel.]</ety> <def>An officer in a king's or a nobleman's household, whose principal business it is to take charge of the liquors, plate, etc.; the head servant in a large house.</def>

<blockquote>The <b>butler</b> and the baker of the king of Egypt. <i>Gen. xl. 5.</i></blockquote>

<blockquote>Your wine locked up, your <b>butler</b> strolled abroad. <i>Pope.</i></blockquote>

<h1>Butlerage</h1> <Xpage=196>

<hw>But"ler*age</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <fld>(O. Eng. Law)</fld> <def>A duty of two shillings on every tun of wine imported into England by merchant strangers; -- so called because paid to the king's butler for the king.</def>

<i>Blackstone.</i>

<h1>Butlership</h1> <Xpage=196>

<hw>But"ler*ship</hw>, <tt>n.</tt> <def>The office of a butler.</def>

<h1>Butment</h1> <Xpage=196>