The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Butchering \Butch"er*ing\, n.
   1. The business of a butcher.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The act of slaughtering; the act of killing cruelly and
      needlessly.
      [1913 Webster]

            That dreadful butchering of one another. --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Butcher \Butch"er\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Butchered; p. pr. &
   vb. n. Butchering.]
   1. To kill or slaughter (animals) for food, or for market;
      as, to butcher hogs.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To murder, or kill, especially in an unusually bloody or
      barbarous manner. --Macaulay.
      [1913 Webster]

            [Ithocles] was murdered, rather butchered. --Ford.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. to bungle badly; to botch; -- used also when an object is
      damaged (literally or figuratively) in an activity; as,
      the new choir butchered the hymn.

   Syn: mangle. [PJC] butcher-bird
        butcher bird

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

butchering
    n 1: the business of a butcher [syn: butchery, butchering]