gibbet

American  

[jib-it] / ˈdʒɪb ɪt /

noun

1. a gallows with a projecting arm at the top, from which the bodies of criminals were formerly hung in chains and left suspended after execution.

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verb (used with object)

gibbeted, gibbeting

1. to hang on a gibbet.

2. to put to death by hanging on a gibbet.

3. to hold up to public scorn.

gibbet British  

/ ˈdʒɪbɪt /

noun

1. 1. a wooden structure resembling a gallows, from which the bodies of executed criminals were formerly hung to public view

   2. a gallows

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verb

1. to put to death by hanging on a gibbet

2. to hang (a corpse) on a gibbet

3. to expose to public ridicule

Etymology

Origin of gibbet

1175–1225; Middle English < Old French gibet (earlier, staff or cudgel), diminutive of gibe staff, club

Example Sentences

Under the low red glare of sunset, the beacon, and the gibbet, and the mound of the Battery, and the opposite shore of the river, were plain, though all of a watery lead colour.

From Literature

“We are mapping execution sites and also places where bodies were gibbeted, so they are hung in gibbet cages as a warning against crime,” said Jeater.

From The Guardian

Marley lives in an Escher-like dwelling with, of course, a very striking knocker, familiar to readers of “A Christmas Carol,” which Clinch renders newly macabre: It hangs “silent as an empty gibbet.”

From New York Times

When she and Jojo pass a gibbet in the town square where five ostensible traitors have been hanged, Jojo asks her what they did, and she answers, “What they could.”

From The New Yorker

Crowds gathered to watch a particular wolf die as agonisingly as possible: drawn and quartered, and left to swing on the gibbet.

From The Guardian

Related Words

• clog
• congest
• drown
• fill
• gag
• gasp
• kill
• stifle
• strangle
• suffocate