gibbet
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L321226 on Wikidata ↗verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L331826 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈd͡ʒɪbɪt/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English gibet, from Old French gibet (French gibet), either from Frankish *gibb (“forked stick”) or from Latin gibbus (“hunchbacked”).
- An upright post with a crosspiece used for execution and subsequent public display.
“Near-synonym: gallows”
“Thy Friends without the help of Prophecie, / Read Goals^([sic – meaning Gaols]) and Gibbets in thy Deſtiny; […]”
- The projecting arm of a crane, from which the load is suspended.
- A human-shaped structure made of iron bands designed to publicly display the corpse of an executed criminal.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English gibet, from Old French gibet (French gibet), either from Frankish *gibb (“forked stick”) or from Latin gibbus (“hunchbacked”).
- To execute (someone), or display (a body), on a gibbet.
“The same animal which hath the honour to have some part of his flesh eaten at the table of a duke, may perhaps be degraded in another part, and some of his limbs gibbeted, as it were, in the vilest stall in town. Where, then, lies the difference between the food of the nobleman and the porter, if both are at dinner on the same ox or calf, but in the seasoning, the dressing, the garnishing, and the setting forth?”
- To expose (someone) to ridicule or scorn.