gibbet
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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gibbets,
present (3rd person singular)
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gibbeted,
past participle, past
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gibbeting
present participle
-
to hang on a gibbet.
-
to put to death by hanging on a gibbet.
-
to hold up to public scorn.
noun
verb
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to put to death by hanging on a gibbet
-
to hang (a corpse) on a gibbet
-
to expose to public ridicule
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gibbetsimple
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gibbetssimple
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have gibbetedperfect
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has gibbetedperfect
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am gibbetingprogressive
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are gibbetingprogressive
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is gibbetingprogressive
-
have been gibbetingperfect progressive
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has been gibbetingperfect progressive
Past
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gibbetedsimple
-
had gibbetedperfect
-
was gibbetingprogressive
-
were gibbetingprogressive
-
had been gibbetingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gibbet
1175–1225; Middle English < Old French gibet (earlier, staff or cudgel), diminutive of gibe staff, club
Explanation
A gibbet is a structure that's used to execute criminals by hanging them. The execution of someone on a gibbet is an old-fashioned practice. You can use the word gibbet to mean "gallows," or "public execution structure," and it can also be a verb, meaning to hang a person on one. Back in the days when executioners would routinely gibbet criminals in the public square, the bodies were often left on display — possibly to intimidate other potential criminals. The word gibbet has its root in the Old French gibet, "bent stick or gallows," from gibe, or "club."
Vocabulary lists containing gibbet
The Crucible
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"A Modest Proposal," Vocabulary from the satire
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"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift
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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.
See Examples For:
Generations of school children across Halifax are taught the history of its gibbet but a few years ago it fell over due to rot.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2014
"It fell down, I was nearby and I felt it was important," said Mr Haddock, whose offices sit opposite the gibbet site.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2014
Back in Paris, at the age of 31, he faced the gibbet of Montfaucon for a second time, was again liberated, sentenced to ten years' exile.
From Time Magazine Archive
He trotted up to the gibbet, stopped, worked his mule under the goose, and grabbed.
From Time Magazine Archive
He took the road for Cambridge, crossing desolate Charlestown Common with its salt marshes, clay pits, gallows, and gibbet.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
Although the practice is fading, mole-catchers employ such gibbets to prove that the promised work is completed, and farmers use them to niggle their neighbours into clearing their own fields.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 8, 2017
In Victorian times, the heyday of butterfly collecting, gamekeepers would attract Purple Emperors down to their gibbets by hanging out rotting carcasses of crows and rabbits.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2015
The blasts have stripped many shop signs off their brackets, and the gibbets hang forsaken.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
But the abuse of ridicule is not one of the least calamities of literature, when it withers genius, and gibbets whom it ought to enshrine.
From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Isaac Disraeli
Comorre's nature seemed changed, his prisons were empty, his gibbets untenanted; but Triphyna felt no confidence, and every day went to pray at the tombs of his four wives.
From Brittany & Its Byways by Mrs. Bury Palliser
Farthing: Paine gibbeted; reverse, breeches burning, legend, "Pandora's breeches"; beneath, serpent decapitated by a dagger, the severed head that of Paine.
From The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III. 1791-1804 by Thomas Paine
Every one remembers how even the late Laureate gibbeted his Dons--how 'One Discussed his tutor, rough to common men.
From Aspects of Modern Oxford by A. D. (Alfred Denis) Godley
It was the fault of one man: Pownall has gibbeted the rascal; Epsom fell through the "knavery of Mr. John Livingstone, an apothecary."
From Highways and Byways in Surrey by Hugh Thomson
At one time it had been a wild and lonely place, known as Attercliffe Common, and we were told that Dick Turpin had been gibbeted there.
From From John O'Groats to Land's End by Robert Naylor
How strange to think of the tiny community in a remote valley of Asia Minor, eighteen centuries since, thus gibbeted for ever!
From The Expositor's Bible: Colossians and Philemon by Alexander Maclaren
The inhabitants of Brigg petitioned against the gibbeting, as it was so near the town, and consequently that part of the sentence was remitted.
From Bygone Punishments by William Andrews
I think your success in gibbeting me is not certain.
From Romola by George Eliot
It was not until 1752 that gibbeting was recognized by statute.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 8 "Haller, Albrecht" to "Harmonium" by Various
It walks abroad, it continues its ravages, whilst you are gibbeting the carcass or demolishing the tomb.
From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
This Act made matters clear, and was the means of gibbeting rapidly increasing in this country.
From Bygone Punishments by William Andrews
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