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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

Related Words

shootexecuteslaymassacreslaughterbutcherexterminatedestroyassassinatebeheadstrangledecapitatelynchasphyxiatedispatchmarguillotinesnuffruinabolish

Examples from the Web for garotted

Historical Examples

  • She will burgle your office: she will have you attacked and garotted at night in the street.

    Augustus Does His Bit

    George Bernard Shaw

  • I am so relieved that you have not been garotted, or blown into the bay.

    A Daughter of the Vine

    Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

  • Antonio Lopez, who attempted to affect a revolution in Cuba, was garotted at Havana.

British Dictionary definitions for garotted

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 garotted

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