butch
/bʊt͡ʃ/ adjective, noun, verb, proper noun
Forms butcher butchest butches butching butched
- adjective (originally Polari) Very masculine, with a masculine appearance or attitude.
- adjective Of a woman (usually lesbian), having a masculine appearance, or attitude.
- noun (slang, LGBTQ, countable) A lesbian who appears masculine or acts in a masculine manner.
- verb (nonstandard, intransitive) To work as a butcher.
- verb (nonstandard, transitive) To slaughter (animals) and prepare (meat) for market.
- proper noun A male nickname.
Synonyms
manly mannish masc masculine unfeminine bull dyke dyke dike macho
Antonyms
Etymology
Originally, it was probably used as an abbreviation of butcher. Later, in the 1940s, the sense of “masculine lesbian” developed.
Back-formation from butcher.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “butch”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details