firing squad

American  

noun

firing squads plural

1. a military detachment assigned to execute a condemned person by shooting.

2. a military detachment assigned to fire a salute at the burial of a person being honored.

---

firing squad British  

noun

1. a small military detachment formed to implement a death sentence by shooting

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• firing squads
  plural

Etymology

Origin of firing squad

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

firing squad

“These kids did an adult job, basically facing a firing squad every day,” her daughter-in-law, Libby Boyce, said in an interview.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2025

Borrowing from what Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested in 2017, we can’t know whether his death was “comparatively painless” or whether, as Denno says, South Carolina’s firing squad delivered a “swift and certain death.”

From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2025

A woman from the Philippines who spent almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad is on her way home.

From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2024

The state asked the Supreme Court to toss out a lower court ruling after a 2022 trial that the electric chair and the firing squad are cruel and unusual punishments.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2023

Bailey stood alone at the front of the class, as if he was facing a firing squad.

From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier