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to execute

to execute

294 6.1
To put someone to death as a legal punishment
  • verb
  • /ˈɛksɪˌkjut/
  • Formal
translation icon : ejecutar a
  • Many of the men who helped murder Ben's family and friends were executed for their crimes.
  • summarily execute
  • execute a murderer
  • execute leaders

The friendly commander executes all the prisoners.

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Examples

  • General Arnaldo Ochoa, hero of Angola, was executed in 1989 for "drug trafficking and corruption."

    Academic text (1994)
  • " I cannot allow the captain to be executed while I stand by and do nothing."

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Ride until dawn... and then execute him.

  • Three more minutes before they execute the first hostage.

  • Do you want to be executed standing up or sitting down?

  • To punish me, my men were executed before my eyes.

  • Your captain is still going to be executed unless you can prove his innocence.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • If he was taken by the rebels and executed, she too would die.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • What if we just didn't execute people at all?

  • In 1945, the court's decision led to several war criminals being executed for their crimes against humanity.

Synonyms

to hang
vsto execute
  • Offensive
524 8.6

To kill a person by tying a rope around their neck and removing support

is the general legal killing term rather than a specific method
to burn
vsto execute
  • NSFW
291 9.9

To kill someone by tying them to a stake and setting them on fire

is the general legal killing term used beyond historical practices
to crucify
vsto execute
  • NSFW
50 8.2

To kill someone by nailing them to a cross

is the broader legal killing phrase not limited to one method
to put to death
vsto execute
  • Offensive
46 7.6

To kill someone as a legal punishment

is more formal and the usual legal term

Antonyms

279 1.8

An act of letting someone or something go free from being held

to pardon
  • Formal
92 3.9

To officially forgive someone for a crime and free them from punishment

Idioms

to execute a U-turn
  • Literature
5.3

Change a plan or decision so the opposite happens

Phrasal Verbs

Turn a vehicle in a U shape to go the other way

How Severe

to execute
  • Formal
294 6.1
to imprison
  • Formal
178 4.2
to reprimand
  • Formal
33 6.1
to warn
1.0

Surface Forms

execute infinitive
executed past
executed past participle
executing present participle
executes third person singular

Etymology

Execute comes from Latin parts ex- 'out' and sequi 'to follow', the same root as sequence. Long ago it meant to 'follow out' an order, and that idea came to mean carrying out a death sentence, so execute can mean to put someone to death by law.