Butcher, one who slaughters animals, and dresses and prepares the carcass for purposes of food. The word also is applied to one who combines this trade with that of selling the meat, and to one who only sells the meat. The O.Fr. bochier or bouchier, modern boucher, from which "butcher" is derived, meant originally a killer of goats and a seller of goats' flesh, from the O.Fr. boc, a he-goat; cf. Ital. beccaio, from becco, a goat.