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gas chamber

American  

noun

  1. an enclosure used for the execution of prisoners by means of a poisonous gas.

gas chamber British  

noun

  1. an airtight room into which poison gas is introduced to kill people or animals

"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

Etymology

Origin of gas chamber

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Woods denounced the gas chamber just as others in Arizona had once denounced hanging, saying that it was barbaric and out of step with modern standards of justice.

From Slate • Feb. 24, 2026

In March 2019, Governor Newsom issued an executive order that halted the death penalty in the state and ordered the dismantling of the gas chamber in San Quentin.

From BBC • Mar. 16, 2024

They’ve just spent time in the grimmest section of the Holocaust exhibit, where they had to file through brick tunnels into a stark, windowless room that evokes a gas chamber.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2023

During Friday's commemorations, Holocaust survivors wearing hats and scarves in the blue and white stripes of camp uniforms and others laid candles on the ruins of a gas chamber.

From Reuters • Jan. 27, 2023

As Tom Swift said, his new silencer had literally blown up, a large piece having been torn from the gas chamber.

From Tom Swift and His Air Scout, or, Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky by Appleton, Victor [pseud.]

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.