butchered

verb

past tense of butcher
1
as in slaughtered
to kill on a large scale the barbarians butchered the monks in the monasteries without mercy

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in fumbled
to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way the new piano student butchered the sonatina

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of butchered Cut marks and scrapes made by flint knives at consistent locations on the bones indicate local humans butchered many of them for meals. — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 20 Aug. 2026 At the site, excavators found stone tools alongside bones of ancient elephants — and the recent paper, written by archaeologists and paleoanthropologists, suggests the remains were likely deliberately butchered by early human ancestors. — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 14 Aug. 2026 The meats — some butchered on-site by Soto — sear over mesquite charcoal, with smoke wafting through the large patio and over the restaurant’s bright pink walls. — Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2026 Jurors heard a harrowing voicemail left by Johnson begging one of her friends for help as Williams butchered her, stabbing her five times in the chest and four times in her back. — John Annese, New York Daily News, 12 Aug. 2026 Being completely immobilized and nearly butchered by Jean could easily lead to a lifelong hatred of mutantkind. — Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 31 July 2026 The magazine’s anatomically graphic photos—rats butchered alive, dogs with their faces sliced open, monkeys screaming at the electrodes implanted in their abdomens—seemed like windows into hell. — Literary Hub, 10 July 2026 That November, working once again with the Humane Society, Anderson rescued three dogs bound for South Korea to be butchered for meat and another that was rescued from Hurricane Ian in Florida. — Mike Danahey, Chicago Tribune, 9 July 2026 Maryland is home to a large Jewish community, many of whom had significant numbers of relatives who were butchered by the SS in concentration camps. — Bobby Zirkin, Baltimore Sun, 9 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for butchered
  1. slaughtered
  2. fumbled
  3. blew
  4. murdered
  5. mangled
  6. dubbed
  7. ruined
  8. destroyed
Verb
  • Cattle that might have come to the US and fattened on American corn to be turned into steaks are now fed, slaughtered and packed entirely in Mexico – then sent to the US as boxed beef.
    — Max Saltman, CNN Money, 22 Aug. 2026
  • His restaurant, Danny’s Burger Shack, serves beef slaughtered in Kansas, southern Nebraska and Missouri, supplied through the Braveheart Black Angus Beef program.
    — Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of slaughtered
Verb
  • In the bathroom, my fingers fumbled in the inner pocket of my jacket, searching for the passport.
    — Ledio Cakaj, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2026
  • Despite rebounding with the wildly entertaining F9 in 2021, the Fast franchise fumbled the 10th chapter, which underperformed at the box office and didn’t exactly get fans hyped for the follow-up.
    — Britt Hayes, Entertainment Weekly, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of fumbled
Verb
  • Two exes alleged Watts blew past their boundaries to satisfy his own needs.
    — Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 24 Aug. 2026
  • Shakur’s killing on the Las Vegas Strip in 1996 blew these tensions wide open, though the case remained unsolved for decades.
    — Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2026
Definition of blew
Verb
  • Curry is largely there for comic relief, swanning in with a bevy of beauties, challenging Bosley (Bill Murray) to a sumo match, and, sadly, getting murdered by the pool, thus depriving us of Curry’s magnetic presence for the rest of the film.
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 26 Aug. 2026
  • London, who was married to hip hop legend Nipsey Hussle, would come together with Snoop again to honor Nipsey after he was murdered in 2019.
    — Justin Kroll, Deadline, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of murdered
Verb
  • Old tree roots have mangled sidewalks and created obstacles for pedestrians, especially parents with strollers and people using wheelchairs.
    — Alexa Herrera, CBS News, 13 July 2026
  • Photos released by the agency show the pickup truck mangled and nearly unrecognizable after the violent plunge, with debris scattered across the rocky mountainside.
    — Bonny Chu, FOXNews.com, 13 July 2026
Definition of mangled
Verb
  • Billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Alexis Ohanian have effectively dubbed themselves amateur yeoman, putting the ultrarichs’ hobby of tending to the land in the spotlight.
    — Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 23 Aug. 2026
  • The intense 2015-2016 El Niño was widely dubbed Godzilla, as people struggled to compare it to the very strong El Niño in 1997-1998.
    — Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 22 Aug. 2026
Definition of dubbed
Verb
  • The influx all but ruined Sutter’s extensive land holdings around Sacramento, originally dubbed New Helvetia.
    — Don Sweeney, Sacbee.com, 15 Aug. 2026
  • Brentford will be hoping promising midfielder Antoni Milambo can contribute after his debut season was ruined by an ACL injury in October.
    — Chris Weatherspoon, New York Times, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of ruined
Verb
  • Glutathione was offered to firefighters during recent blazes that destroyed hundreds of buildings in and around Spokane, Washington.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 23 Aug. 2026
  • If satellites supporting communications or ISR were damaged or destroyed, a faster and less expensive launch system could theoretically allow replacement spacecraft to be deployed more quickly.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 22 Aug. 2026
Definition of destroyed

Browse Nearby Words

butcher
butchered
butcheries
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Cite this Entry

“Butchered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/butchered. Accessed 29 Aug. 2026.

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