pillory
Americannoun
-
pillories
plural
verb (used with object)
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pillories,
present (3rd person singular)
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pilloried,
past participle, past
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pillorying
present participle
-
to set in the pillory.
-
to expose to public derision, ridicule, or abuse.
The candidate mercilessly pilloried his opponent.
noun
-
a wooden framework into which offenders were formerly locked by the neck and wrists and exposed to public abuse and ridicule
-
exposure to public scorn or abuse
verb
-
to expose to public scorn or ridicule
-
to punish by putting in a pillory
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pillorysimple
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pilloriessimple
-
have pilloriedperfect
-
has pilloriedperfect
-
am pilloryingprogressive
-
are pilloryingprogressive
-
is pilloryingprogressive
-
have been pilloryingperfect progressive
-
has been pilloryingperfect progressive
Past
-
pilloriedsimple
-
had pilloriedperfect
-
was pilloryingprogressive
-
were pilloryingprogressive
-
had been pilloryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pillory
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English pyllory, from Old French pilori, perhaps from Medieval Latin pīlōrium, equivalent to Latin pīl(a) “pillar” ( see pile 1) + -ōrium noun suffix ( see -ory 2), though Romance variants such as Provençal espillori suggest a less transparent source
Explanation
A pillory is a wooden frame with cutouts for someone's head and hands. Long ago, people found guilty of a crime could be sentenced to be locked in a pillory for a certain amount of time for punishment but also for public humiliation. The verb pillory means to be punished by being locked in a pillory, but references to this form of punishment are historic and it is no longer used — you might see references today to someone in a pillory in a cartoon. As a modern verb, pillory means both to criticize harshly and to expose to public ridicule. Someone who is caught doing something immoral may be pilloried and people who believe they have been unfairly criticized say they have been pilloried, but often only after they've been exposed!
Vocabulary lists containing pillory
I've Never Been So Insulted...
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The Witch of Blackbird Pond
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The Taming of the Shrew
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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:
“There used to be a pillory in every civilized town,” Pattinson’s Hansen remarks about the state of justice.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
Wounded by all the undeserved pillory, Mr. Fukuyama now seeks to set the record straight with “In the Realm of the Last Man.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
City hall, the slave market, and town pillory were all there, and the wharf on the East River “made it a rendezvous for pirates,” writes Sobol.
From Barron's ● Mar. 1, 2026
Speaking to Newsnight, he said people should not "want to pillory a man who has led us through this crisis and create turmoil within the country".
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2022
She could not face the family, or the whispering and staring that would turn her own family pew into a pillory.
From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare
They've called their album "the record", in a play on the faux-humility of Bob Dylan's backing group The Band; while the song Leonard Cohen simultaneously praises and pillories one of Dacus's inspirations.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2023
The fact that these authorities do not address the general public, unlike the intellectuals Ross pillories, does not raise his democratic hackles.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2021
I shall have to humiliate them in the pillories of the national charts, and in doing so buy myself a big house.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 29, 2019
His wife, Shannon McGahn, is staff director for the House Financial Services Committee, a role that makes her a magnet for the very lobbyists that Trump regularly pillories.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2016
Paper pillories are always very popular in Paris, and under the Commune the heads of Tropmann and Thiers were exhibited in a wooden vice, inscribed Pantin and Neuilly underneath.
From Paris under the Commune The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege; with Numerous Illustrations, Sketches Taken on the Spot, and Portraits (from the Original Photographs) by John Leighton
New York City’s critics and tastemakers, who had steadily pilloried the World Trade Center, not only embraced Windows on the World—they anointed it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Influential iconoclastic thinker Richard Dawkins was then pilloried for suggesting that perhaps it already has.
From Slate ● May 25, 2026
Morens was pilloried for his email practices during a House Oversight Committee hearing two years ago, and apologized.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
Philadelphia is presenting itself as the US World Cup host city offering fans the best value for money, with affordable transport, accommodation and food while other venues are pilloried for gouging supporters.
From Barron's ● Apr. 29, 2026
Arriving in Washington with the same sort of desire and energy to contribute, though, she’d been roundly spurned, pilloried for taking on a policy role in the White House’s work on health-care reform.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Aside from the odd scene filmed in a girls' school bathroom for a teen movie, I count no examples of straight young women pillorying beautiful women for their looks.
From Salon ● Mar. 30, 2023
Wilder may or may not have been aware of this pillorying when he produced his own whys-and-wherefores.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 26, 2020
And I write to strongly oppose the pillorying of Domingo for his affectionate nature.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2019
This week, Ms. Argento was the target of a broad and savage public pillorying on the front pages of virtually every newspaper in the country.
From New York Times ● Aug. 21, 2018
He knew the boy could not do it, and this was only a formula he went through previous to pillorying the lad.
From It Is Never Too Late to Mend by Charles Reade
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
