Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUTCH'ER-ED, pp.

Killed; slaughtered.

BUTCH'ER-ING, ppr.

Slaughtering.

BUTCH'ER-LI-NESS, n.

A cruel, savage, butcherly manner. – Johnson.

BUTCH'ER-LY, a. [from butcher.]

Cruel; savage; murderous; grossly and clumsily barbarous. – Ascham. Shak.

BUTCH'ER-ROW, n.

A row of shambles. – Whitlock.

BUTCH'ER'S-BROOM, n.

Ruscus; a genus of plants, called also Knee-holly. It is used by butchers for brooms to sweep their blocks. – Encyc.

BUTCH'ER-Y, n.

1. The business of slaughtering cattle for the table or for market. – Pope.
2. Murder, especially murder committed with unusual barbarity; great slaughter. – Shak. Dryden.
3. The place where animals are killed for market; a shambles, or slaughter house; also, a place where blood is shed. – Shak.

BUT-END, n. [but and end.]

The largest or blunt end of a thing; as, the but-end of a musket or of a piece of timber This word is tautological, but and end signifying the same thing; unless but is considered as equivalent to swelling, protuberant.

BUT'LER, n. [Fr. bouteillier, from bouteille, a bottle, that is, the bottler; Ir. buitleir, a butler, from buidel, boide, a bottle.]

A servant or officer in the houses of princes and great men, whose principal business is to take charge of the liquors, plate, &c. Formerly, an officer in the court of France, being the same as the grand echanson or great cup-bearer of the present times. – Encyc.

BUT'LER-AGE, n.

A duty of two shillings on every tun of wine imported into England by foreigners or merchant strangers. It was a composition for the privileges granted to them by King John and Edward I., and originally received by the crown; but it has been granted to certain noblemen. It was called butlerage, because originally paid to the king's butler for the king. – Blackstone. Encyc.

BUT'LER-SHIP, n.

The office of a butler. – Gen. xl. 21.

BUT'MENT, n. [Old Fr. aboutement, from bout, but, end.]

1. A buttress of an arch; the supporter, or that part which joins it to the upright pier. – Johnson. Encyc.
2. The mass of stone or solid work at the end of a bridge, by which the extreme arches are sustained. The mass of stone at the end of a timber bridge, without arches, is called by the same name. It is written also abutment.

BUT'SHAFT, n. [but and shaft.]

An arrow to shoot at butts with. – B. Jonson.

BUTT, n. [See But.]

1. Literally, end, furthest point. Hence, a mark to be shot at; the point where a mark is set or fixed to be shot at. – Dryden.
2. The point to which a purpose or effort is directed. – Shak.
3. The object of aim; the thing against which an attack is directed. – Clarendon. Hence,
4. The person at whom ridicule, jests or contempt are directed; as, the butt of ridicule. – Spectator.
5. A push or thrust given by the head of an animal, as the butt of a ram; also, a thrust in fencing.
6. A cask whose contents are 126 gallons of wine, or two hogsheads; called also a pipe. A butt of beer is 108 gallons, and from 1500 to 2200 weight of currants is a butt. [Sax. butte or bytt; Sp. bota.] – Johnson.
7. The end of a plank in a ship's side or bottom. – Mar. Dict.
8. A particular kind of hinge for doors, &c.

BUTT, v.i. [W. pwtiaw, to butt, to thrust; It. buttare; Sp. botar; Port. botar, to thrust, or throw; Fr. botte, a thrust; from the same root probably as but, bout; L. peto.]

To thrust the head forward; to strike by thrusting the head against, as an ox or a ram. – Wotton. Dryden.

BUT'TED, pp.

Struck with the head.

BUT'TER, n. [Sax. buter, butera; D. boter; Ger. butter; L. butyrum; Gr. βουτυρον.]

An oily substance obtained from cream or milk by churning. Agitation separates the fat or oily part of milk from the thin or serous part, called butter-milk. Butter, in the old chimistry, was applied to various preparations; as, Butter of antimony, now called the sublimated muriate of antimony, and made by distilling a mixture of corrosive sublimate and the regulus. Butter of arsenic, sublimated muriate of arsenic, made by a like process. Butter of bismuth, sublimated muriate of bismuth. Butter of tin, sublimated muriate of tin. Butter of zink, sublimated muriate of zink. – Fourcroy. Butter of cacao, is an oily concrete white matter obtained from the cacao nut, made by bruising the nut and boiling it in water. – Nicholson. Butter of wax, the oleaginous part of wax, obtained by distillation, and of a butyraceous consistence. – Nicholson.

BUT'TER, v.t.

1. To smear with butter.
2. To increase the stakes at every throw or every game; a cant term among gamesters. – Johnson.

BUT'TER-BUMP, n.

The bittern. – Johnson.

BUT'TER-BURR, n.

A plant, a species of Tussilago, or colt's-foot, called Petasites, growing in wet land, with large leaves. – Fam. of Plants. Encyc.

BUT'TER-CUPS, n.

A name given to a species of Ranunculus or crow-foot, with bright yellow flowers; called also golden-cup. – Fam. of Plants. Lee.

BUT'TER-FLOW-ER, n.

A yellow flower. – Gay.

BUT'TER-FLY, n. [so named from the color of a yellow species. Sax. buter-flege or butter-fleoge. See Fly.]

Papilio, a genus of insects, of the order of Lepidopters. They have four wings imbricated with a kind of downy scale; the tongue is convoluted in a spiral form; and the body is hairy. The species are numerous. Butterflies proceed from the chrysalids of caterpillars; caterpillars proceed from eggs deposited by butterflies; they then change into chrysalids, which produce butterflies, which again deposit their eggs.

BUT'TER-FLY-SHELL, n.

The popular name of a genus of Testaceous Molluscas, with a spiral unilocular shell; called voluta. – Encyc.

BUT'TER-IS, n.

An instrument of steel set in wood, for paring the hoof of a horse. Farrier's Dict.