gallows
1
7.5
- noun
- /ˈɡæloʊz/
- NSFW
:
horca
- In historical times, many people were put to death at the gallows for various crimes.
Look at the policeman, look at the jail, look at the gallows.
- Look at the policeman, look at the jail, look at the gallows.
- And they invite us to wonder whether this is what they call simulated gallows.
- He had flip flops and prison shorts because if you went to the gallows with those, you soil the shorts and then they got a washer.
- At first it's John Brown leaving his jail cell on the day of his hanging, where he sat on his own coffin, riding to the gallows.
Examples
-
The prisoner was led to the gallows where he would be executed by hanging.
-
The Spanish priests, they hung her here in Gallows Hill in the 17th century.
-
At Ten: Condemned Couple Is Sent to the Gallows.
Fiction book (2001) -
Nurse was examined by local magistrates, jailed, tried, convicted, and then taken to Gallows Hill in Salem Town.
Academic text (1992) -
Phyllis was burned at the stake in Cambridge, not far from Longfellow's house, in a place called Gallows Hill; Mark was executed in Charlestown, and his body was left hanging in chains as a warning to Boston's slaves of the danger of rebellion.
Academic text (2011) -
The gallows stood in the town square as a grim reminder of the past.
Synonyms
3
8.7
A raised platform where people are put to death in public
3
9.9
A frame with a beam across the top used for hanging criminals
1
9.9
A tree or frame used to hang people as punishment
A wooden frame with two posts and a crossbeam for hanging people
A wooden frame used in the past for hanging people as punishment
Compounds
Surface Forms
Etymology
Gallows comes from an old English word galga meaning 'beam' or 'gallows', a simple wooden frame used for hanging people. So gallows still refers to that wooden structure used for execution.