hangman's halter
- noun
- NSFW
:
soga del verdugo
- The condemned man stared at the hangman's halter with fear and resignation.
Examples
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No one wanted to be the one to fashion the hangman's halter for the execution.
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Stories of the old west often mention outlaws meeting their end at the hangman's halter.
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The hangman's halter was made of thick rope.
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Many stories depict the hangman's halter as a symbol of justice.
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The condemned man stared at the hangman's halter with fear and resignation.
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Stories of the old west often mention outlaws meeting their end at the hangman's halter.
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No one wanted to be the one to fashion the hangman's halter for the execution.
Synonyms
65
6.1
A loop of rope with a knot that tightens used to catch animals or for hanging
1
9.6
A rope loop used to hang a person
1
9.8
A rope that people use to kill someone by putting it around their neck and making them fall
A strong rope tied into a loop for hanging people
A rope for hanging people at Tyburn, often a symbol of execution in old English stories
Surface Forms
Morphology
hangman's + halter
The phrase is a straightforward possessive composition: 'hangman's' (the executioner) + 'halter' (a noosed rope), so the overall meaning ‘the rope used by a hangman to execute by hanging’ is directly inferable from the parts. While 'halter' has other senses (e.g. a strap or animal halter), the possessive context makes the intended execution-related sense clear to a learner who knows both words, so the expression is transparently compositional.
Etymology
The noun hangman's halter comes from a simple, literal image: the hangman's halter was the rope put around a person's neck to 'hang' them. That's why the phrase means 'a rope used to hang someone'.