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charcuter

to butcher, to hack up (clumsily)

verb shar-ku-TAY Rare
Food & Drink Cooking

Usage Note

Charcuter literally means to cut meat like a charcutier (pork butcher), but figuratively it means to carve something up badly — a text, a budget, or a surgical operation done sloppily. Se faire charcuter (to be butchered/hacked up) is informal slang for a botched operation. Related: charcuterie (cured meat, deli).

Examples

"Il a charcuté le texte sans aucune finesse."

Natural Translation

He hacked up the text without any finesse.

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