butch

adj

1. Very masculine, with a masculine appearance or attitude.

   “There, look, Mr. Horne! Vada that great butch lucoddy!”

   “Nor can I credit that a — to put it crudely — proud bisexual butch Italian — albeit one lonely, poor, emotional and without strong will — which Giovanni is shown to be in the earlier part of the book, should become, in a mere matter of months, and as the result of any happening, the venal hysterical fairy that he does.”

   “[…] Closeted men adopted feminine affect while butch men embraced traditional masculinity.”

   “[…] butch men who had sex with effeminate queens. […]”

2. Of a woman (usually lesbian), having a masculine appearance, or attitude.

   “Then I started going out with different kinds of women, and I started feeling more like I wanted to be more butch. […] I feel much more butch than I feel femme.”

   “The process of appreciating a butch aesthetic may be even more complex for bisexual butch women. In contrast to lesbian butches who may date only within a butch-femme community, bisexual butch women may be more likely to […] In comparison to butch bisexual women, it may be easier for femme bisexual women to locate male and female dating partners […]”

   “More of the rotten responses I receive about being a bisexual butch woman come from other bisexuals, particularly men, who don't want to deal with any woman who is not some Barbie doll standard of femininity.”

   “"Faye got wicked buff and has a super butch haircut and it is hot as shit." "It's okay, babe. We can ogle her together."”

noun

1. (countable, slang)A lesbian who appears masculine or acts in a masculine manner.

   “Coming out appeals to the narcissistic pleasure of presenting to another a finished image of ourselves, which they return to us in exactly the same form: [someone tells] you [they are] a bisexual butch, and you confirm it. But instead, it seems all too likely – especially, perhaps, for bisexuals, whose claims to identity always need that much more proof – that no such mirror-image will be returned.”

verb

1. (intransitive, nonstandard)To work as a butcher.

   “Sax thouſand years are near hand fled, / Sin’ I was to the butching bred, / And mony a ſcheme in vain’s been laid, / To ſtap or ſcar me; / Till ane Hornbook’s ta’en up the trade, / And faith, he’ll waur me.”

   “Butch, to practice the trade of a butcher, to kill.”

   “And sometimes he also displayed by the side of his brooms, some spare-ribs after the killing of a neighbour’s pig—but there was no one in Black Moss who was a regular purveyor of any sort of meat. Certain there were indeed who “butched a bit noo an’ then,” but they looked for their meat to a butcher who journeyed to them from afar twice a week in the winter, and three times in the season.”

   “BUTCH, v. to kill animals for food. as a butcher does. / Coll. Use. 1875. He use’t to be a farmer, but he butches neaw.”

   “From out his red and sawdust shop / This butcher, born to chepe and chop, / Surveys without a trace of grief / Perambulating tombs of beef. / […] / It’s probable we never shall / Convince him that an animal / Is not mere layers of lean and fat; / He may have butched too much for that.”

2. (nonstandard, transitive)To slaughter (animals) and prepare (meat) for market.

   “Take thy huge offal and white liver hence, / Or in a twinkling of this true-blue steel / I shall be butching thee from nape to rump.”

   ““Couldn’t Ali butch the cow, please?” said Bill, whose ears were ever open when the question of food was raised.”

   “I can vouch that it is in regular use in Clitheroe and the neighbouring district, where such expressions as “I butched three sheep yesterday,” or “He used to be a farmer, but has now gone into the butching business,” are very frequently heard.”

   “However, the idea of horse meat for animal food is thoroughly established, and this industry has grown up in California because there seem to be more dogs and cats per capita than elsewhere; because horse meat sold in special pet food shops always has been economical, costing less than half as much as butcher’s meat. Even before the meat was freely sold in fresh form, it was butched regularly for dog food canners.”

   “Growing every pig takes between 8 and 12 months, and once they are ready to be butched, he sells them for 1500 to 2000 pesos (150-200 USD).”

name

1. A male nickname.