Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A device consisting of a heavy blade held aloft between upright guides and dropped to behead a person condemned to die.
- noun An instrument, such as a paper cutter, similar in action to a guillotine.
- transitive verb To behead with a guillotine.
- transitive verb To cut with a guillotine or sharp blade.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To behead by the guillotine.
- noun A machine for breaking iron by means of a falling weight.
- noun A machine used in France for beheading condemned persons by the action of a heavily weighted, oblique-edged knife falling between two grooved posts upon the neck of the victim, whose head protrudes through a circular hole in a divided plank.
- noun One of several machines similar in principle to the above, much used for cutting paper, straw, etc. Also called
guillotine cutter . - noun In surgery, an instrument for cutting the tonsils.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A machine for beheading a person by one stroke of a heavy ax or blade, which slides in vertical guides, is raised by a cord, and let fall upon the neck of the victim.
- noun Any machine or instrument for cutting or shearing, resembling in its action a guillotine.
- transitive verb To behead with the guillotine.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
machine used for the application ofcapital punishment bydecapitation , consisting of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavydiagonal -edgedblade . - noun A device used for cutting stacks of
paper to straight edges, usually by means of ahinged blade attached to a flatplatform . - noun A
cloture ; a motion that debate be ended and a vote taken. - verb transitive To execute, cut or cut short (a person, a stack of paper or a debate) by use of a guillotine.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun closure imposed on the debate of specific sections of a bill
- noun instrument of execution that consists of a weighted blade between two vertical poles; used for beheading people
- verb kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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So this interest in the guillotine is the centrifugal force, if you will.
Faraway Voices 2004
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So this interest in the guillotine is the centrifugal force, if you will.
Faraway Voices 2004
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So this interest in the guillotine is the centrifugal force, if you will.
Faraway Voices 2004
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His streamlined, Shaolin-infused raps prioritized what he termed guillotine swordsmanship and the God theory of Five Percent, the Nation of Islam offshoot-not commercial claptrap.
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Why bother with the Divine Right of Kings when the guillotine is handy?
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In parliamentary procedure, cloture (pronounced/ˈkloʊtʃər/KLOH-chər), also called closure and sometimes a guillotine, is a motion or process aimed at bringing debate to a quick end.
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Wonder if that guillotine is a first in recent literary fiction.
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(To the best of my knowledge, the guillotine is no longer being used.)
And you thought the pimps had it rough | Her Bad Mother 2006
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The guillotine is about to drop on this administration, as soon as Fitzgerald is good and ready.
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One of the sentinels, posted inside the tower, wrote one day on the door of the king's chamber: "The guillotine is permanent, and is awaiting the tyrant, Louis XVI."
The Ruin of a Princess Cl 1912
holylipstick commented on the word guillotine
Reminds me of gelatin.
February 5, 2010