schindery

S1C3H4I1N1D2E1R1Y4

noun

A facility in which animal carcasses are rendered into useful by-products, such as hides, fertilizer, soap, etc.; a rendering plant.

Scrabble 18

Meanings

nounschindery (plural schinderies)

plural schinderies

  1. PennsylvaniaWesterndialectalobsoleteA facility in which animal carcasses are rendered into useful by-products, such as hides, fertilizer, soap, etc.; a rendering plant.
    2 more examples

    It is the rendering establishment of Dr. E. L. Czarnieki, the City Fallmaster. It is better known to the daily newspaper reader as the schindery, a German term which like that of Dr. Czarnieki's office—Fallmaster—is unknown to Webster's unabridged. It is at the schindery where the carcasses picked up from the street are utilized for nearly one hundred and one purposes.

    1881 February 23, “Beats Cremation”, in The Daily Post, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, page 4

    Previous to the outbreak at West Elizabeth the Board had, at the urgent request of Crosby Gray, Esq., the efficient and energetic health officer of Pittsburgh, made an investigation into the condition of certain bone-boiling establishments, known in the dialect of that region as "schinderies," which it was feared might pollute the Monongahela river, from which what is called South Pittsburgh draws its water supply.

    1887, Benjamin Lee, “Note on an Epidemic of Typhoid Fever at South Pittsburgh”, in Pennsylvania State Board of Health, Second Annual Report of the State Board of Health and Vital Statistics of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Edwin K. Meyers, page 125

    Synonyms: knacker's yard, knackery

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA facility in which animal carcasses are rendered into useful by-products, such as hides, fertilizer, soap, etc.; a rendering plant.

Origin

Probably from German Schinder (“person who renders animal carcasses”) + -ery (“place of”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

schindery. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/schindery

MLA

“schindery.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/schindery. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “schindery,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/schindery.

Source: schindery on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.