butchers hook
Slaughterhouse ceiling fixture
Butcher's hook is Cockney rhyming slang for look: Take a butcher's at this.
In practice, the rhyming word often drops away, leaving just butcher's or butchers.
The full phrase appears mainly when explaining the slang to outsiders.
Like most rhyming slang, it originated in London's East End.
- meatAnimal tissue for food
- cleaverBroad-bladed cutting tool
- rhymingSharing terminal sounds
- slangInformal in-group vocabulary
- lookDirect one's gaze
have a look · take a gander · gaze · apron · bloody · chop · pork chops · chopping block · hanging · carcass · stare · rhyming slang · glance · block · prime cuts · knife · pork · sawdust
butcher, hook, butchers, hooks, butchery, butchered, butchering, hooked, hooking