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garotte

[guh-rot, -roht]
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noun, verb (used with object), ga·rot·ted, ga·rot·ting.
  1. garrote.
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Related formsga·rot·ter, noun

garrote

or ga·rote, ga·rotte, gar·rotte

[guh-roht, -rot]
noun
  1. a method of capital punishment of Spanish origin in which an iron collar is tightened around a condemned person's neck until death occurs by strangulation or by injury to the spinal column at the base of the brain.
  2. the collarlike instrument used for this method of execution.
  3. strangulation or throttling, especially in the course of a robbery.
  4. an instrument, usually a cord or wire with handles attached at the ends, used for strangling a victim.
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verb (used with object), gar·rot·ed, gar·rot·ing.
  1. to execute by the garrote.
  2. to strangle or throttle, especially in the course of a robbery.
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Origin of garrote

1615–25; < Spanish garrote or French garrot packing-stick < ?
Related formsgar·rot·er, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for garotte

Historical Examples

  • So Garotte became a sort of theocracy, with Judge Rablay as ruler.

    Eatin' Crow; and The Best Man In Garotte

    Frank Harris

  • Lajeunesse, Garotte, and Muroc were invaluable, each after his kind.

  • On the way to his house he met Duclosse the mealman and Garotte the lime-burner.

  • Executed in Porto Rico by the terrible Spanish method of the garotte.

  • But Bent would croak: "Whitman's struck nothin'; thar ain't no gold in Garotte; it's all work and no dust."

British Dictionary definitions for garotte

garotte

noun, verb
  1. a variant spelling of garrotte
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Derived Formsgarotter, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for garotte

garrote

n.

also garrotte, 1620s, "Spanish method of capital punishment by strangulation," from Spanish garrote "stick for twisting cord," of unknown origin, perhaps from Old French guaroc "club, stick, rod, shaft of a crossbow," probably ultimately Celtic, but possibly from Frankish *wrokkan "to twist" (cf. Middle Dutch wroken "to twist").

I have no hesitation in pronouncing death by the garrot, at once the most manly, and the least offensive to the eye. [Major John Richardson, "British Legion," 1837]
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garrote

v.

"to execute with a garrote," 1851, from garrote (n.); sense of "choke and then rob" is from 1852. Related: Garotted; garotting.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper