Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for gas chamber. Search instead for gas+chamber.
Synonyms

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.

Specifying the gas chamber in the constitution was thought to be a way of making it hard for the state to resume hanging in response to a horrific crime.

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

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on executions in 2019 and dismantled the prison’s gas chamber, and in 2022 he announced plans to begin transferring inmates sentenced to death to other prisons.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 27, 2023

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

I did not care to risk contracting our gas chamber for fear of losing gas.

From Tono Bungay by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

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.