gallows Hear it!

gallows Definition

gal·lows (galōz)

noun pl. -·lows or -·lowses

  1. an upright frame with a crossbeam and a rope, for hanging condemned persons
  2. any structure like this, used for suspending or supporting
  3. the death sentence by hanging

Etymology: ME galwes, pl. of galwe < OE galga, akin to Ger galgen < IE base *ĝhalgh-, pliant tree branch > Lith žalgà, long, thin pole: the earliest gallows was a pulled-down branch that carried the victim with it when allowed to spring up

gallows Synonyms

gallows

n.

gibbet, scaffold, yardarm, hangman's tree, Tyburn Tree, tree, noose, halter, drop*.

gallows Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • erect: Syd had the gallows erected in the cellar of the post office.
  • mount: The following day Parsons, Spies, Fisher and Engel mounted the gallows.
  • escape: But after five years in jail, he escaped the gallows when his sentence was commuted.
  • have: Syd had the gallows erected in the cellar of the post office.
  • face: Imagine facing the gallows, or the firing squad.
  • build: They're building a gallows in the town square.

Preposition: for

execution: Brought to the gallows for execution, he is pardoned by the queen in honor of her coronation.

Adjective modifier

  • makeshift: There are plans to dress captured Taliban fighters in Santa costumes and string them from makeshift gallows along the city's main shopping street.
  • new: This is the door through which the condemned were led to the new gallows, re-named The New Drop.
  • same: I cannot think of another case where two men were hanged on the same gallows an hour and a half apart.
  • own: A murderer haunted victims through its cavernous rooms and gaslit passages for his own private gallows.
  • public: Your average village hag was usually dispatched by hanging at the public gallows or, more precisely, by being slowly strangled.
  • last: The collection includes Oscar Wilde's Reading Jail cell door and, from Wandsworth Prison, the last gallows to be used in England.

Modifies a noun

  • humor: We had a certain gallows humor in the embassy.
  • humor: The Simon Wiesenthal Center dismissed the contest as " gallows humor.
  • tree: May God be friend to me, He who once suffered on the gallows tree On earth here for men's sins.
  • literature: The ballad continues with an echo of previous gallows literature: Oh!
  • signal: This ex-Midland gallows signal was the last intact Midland signal in the Bradford district.
  • sign: Across St John's Street hangs one of only a small number of gallows signs that remain.

Noun used with modifier

town: At the top of the lane, near the boro boundary, we see the town gallows where convicted thieves end their lives.

Browse dictionary entries near gallows

  1. gallowglass
  2. Galloway
  3. gallous
  4. gallopade
  5. gallop
  6. galloon
  7. gallonage
  8. gallon
  9. galloglass
  10. Gallo-
  1. gallows bird
  2. gallows humor
  3. gallows tree
  4. gallstone
  5. Gallup
  6. galluses
  7. Galois theory
  8. galoot
  9. galop
  10. galore