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

Relevance
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 Thornburg butchered three of the people over seven days in September 2021 at the Mid City Inn in Euless. — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Oct. 2026 Then, in 1863, a collection of Missouri Confederate Bushwhackers led by William Quantrill rode into Lawrence and butchered 150 men and boys. — Scott Dochterman, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for butchered
  1. slaughtered
  2. fumbled
  3. blew
  4. murdered
  5. mangled
  6. dubbed
  7. ruined
  8. destroyed
Verb
  • In short, the encyclopedia is being destroyed by its biggest beneficiaries, like a golden goose slaughtered for slop-pâté.
    — Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Investigators discovered the father and young son slaughtered in a hotel room at the resort on Monday.
    — Kelsie Cairns, FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of slaughtered
Verb
  • Thomas and Woods fumbled in the first half in Spartan territory — their first of the season on 118 combined carries thus far.
    — Connor Dullinger, Los Angeles Times, 26 Oct. 2026
  • During Sunday night’s game against the Seahawks at Lumen Field in Seattle, Mahomes fumbled after a big hit, and roughly 22 players had a chance to recover the ball.
    — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of fumbled
Verb
  • The stocks are already down over 30% each in October as credit investors blew their yields out to distressed levels, doubting their business model of using aggressive levels of debt to build data centers.
    — Leonie Kidd, CNBC, 26 Oct. 2026
  • After losing consecutive non-road games by three points both times, on Saturday night UT blew a 24-3 halftime lead to turn it a fourth-quarter tie.
    — Mac Engel October 25, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of blew
Verb
  • During this same time his father had vanished behind the Bamboo Curtain and was almost certainly persecuted, possibly even murdered, by the same Communists that Hoover claimed to be fighting.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 Oct. 2026
  • New or expecting mothers are more likely to be murdered than to die from obstetric causes.
    — Michele Decker, Washington Post, 26 Oct. 2026
Definition of murdered
Verb
  • Photos showed his paws mangled and covered with open red sores.
    — Sandra McDonald, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2026
  • 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
Definition of mangled
Verb
  • The 53,800-square-foot building, dubbed Le Large, is the passion project of Laurent Dumas, founder and president of the Emerige real estate group and its philanthropic arm, the Emerige Endowment Fund.
    — Joelle Diderich, Footwear News, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Linvill and several other research groups attributed them to Russian operators the research community has dubbed Storm-1516.
    — Shannon Bond, NPR, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of dubbed
Verb
  • My brother’s wife has ruined each and every get-together by having constant fights with her little boy about eating.
    — Judith Martin, Sun Sentinel, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Tyrese Maxey scored 28 points, Jaylen Brown had 19, Joel Embiid had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and the Sixers ruined the Knicks' championship party.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of ruined
Verb
  • Both the rocket and the camera were destroyed after crashing into the Earth at a speed of about 340 miles per hour.
    — Robert Z. Pearlman, Space.com, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Cities outside Paris have been hit hard by the unrest, including Limoges where a fire nearly destroyed the 19th-century city hall.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 23 Oct. 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 28 Oct. 2026.

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