guillotine

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: guil=lo=tine

CIDE DICTIONARY

guillotine, n. [F., from Guillotin, a French physician, who proposed, in the Constituent Assembly of 1789, to abolish decapitation with the ax or sword. The instrument was invented by Dr. Antoine Louis, and was called at first Louison or Louisette. Similar machines, however, were known earlier.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any machine or instrument for cutting or shearing, resembling in its action a guillotine.  [1913 Webster]

guillotine, v. t. [Cf. F. guillotiner.].

 To behead with the guillotine.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

guillotine, n. & v.
--n.
1 a machine with a heavy knife-blade sliding vertically in grooves, used for beheading.
2 a device for cutting paper, metal, etc.
3 a surgical instrument for excising the uvula etc.
4 Parl. a method of preventing delay in the discussion of a legislative bill by fixing times at which various parts of it must be voted on.
--v.tr.
1 use a guillotine on.
2 Parl. end discussion of (a bill) by applying a guillotine.

Derivative

guillotiner n.

Etymology

F f. J.-I. Guillotin, Fr. physician d. 1814, who recommended its use for executions in 1789

DEVIL DICTIONARY

guillotine

n. A machine which makes a Frenchman shrug his shoulders with good reason.
In his great work on _Divergent Lines of Racial Evolution_, the learned Professor Brayfugle argues from the prevalence of this gesture -- the shrug -- among Frenchmen, that they are descended from turtles and it is simply a survival of the habit of retracing the head inside the shell. It is with reluctance that I differ with so eminent an authority, but in my judgment (as more elaborately set forth and enforced in my work entitled _Hereditary Emotions_ -- lib. II, c. XI) the shrug is a poor foundation upon which to build so important a theory, for previously to the Revolution the gesture was unknown. I have not a doubt that it is directly referable to the terror inspired by the guillotine during the period of that instrument's activity.

THESAURUS

guillotine

ax, behead, beheading, block, bowstring, burn, burning, capital punishment, cloture, cloture by compartment, cross, crucifixion, crucify, death chair, death chamber, decapitate, decapitation, decollate, decollation, defenestrate, defenestration, drop, electric chair, electrocute, electrocution, execute, execution, fusillade, gallows, gallows-tree, garrote, gas chamber, gassing, gibbet, halter, hanging, head, hemlock, hemp, hempen collar, hot seat, inflict capital punishment, judicial murder, kangaroo cloture, lapidate, lapidation, lethal chamber, maiden, necktie party, noose, poisoning, put to death, rope, scaffold, shoot, shooting, stake, stem, stone, stoning, strangle, strangling, strangulation, the ax, the block, the chair, the gallows, the gas chamber, the guillotine, the hot seat, the rope, tree

ROGET THESAURUS

guillotine

Punishment

VB punish, chastise, chasten, castigate, correct, inflict punishment, administer correction, deal retributive justice, cowhide, lambaste, visit upon, pay, pay out, serve out, do for, make short work of, give a lesson to, serve one right, make an example of, have a rod in pickle for, give it one, strike, deal a blow to, administer the lash, smite, slap, slap the face, smack, cuff, box the ears, spank, thwack, thump, beat, lay on, swinge, buffet, thresh, thrash, pummel, drub, leather, trounce, sandbag, baste, belabor, lace, lace one's jacket, dress, dress down, give a dressing, trim, warm, wipe, tund, cob, bang, strap, comb, lash, lick, larrup, wallop, whop, flog, scourge, whip, birch, cane, give the stick, switch, flagellate, horsewhip, bastinado, towel, rub down with an oaken towel, rib roast, dust one's jacket, fustigate, pitch into, lay about one, beat black and blue, beat to a mummy, beat to a jelly, give a black eye, tar and feather, pelt, stone, lapidate, masthead, keelhaul, execute, bring to the block, bring to the gallows, behead, decapitate, guillotine, decollate, hang, turn off, gibbet, bowstring, hang draw and quarter, shoot, decimate, burn, break on the wheel, crucify, empale, impale, flay, lynch, electrocute, gas, send to the gas chamber, torture, put on, put to the rack, picket, banish, exile, transport, expel, ostracize, rusticate, drum out, dismiss, disbar, disbench, strike off the roll, unfrock, post, suffer, suffer for, suffer punishment, be flogged, be executed, suffer the ultimate penalty, be hanged, come to the gallows, mount the gallows, swing, twist in the wind, dance upon nothing, die in one's shoes, be rightly served, be electrocuted, fry, ride the lightning, face the firing squad.

Scourge

N scourge, rod, cane, stick, ratan, rattan, birch, birch rod, azote, blacksnake, bullwhack, chicote, kurbash, quirt, rawhide, sjambok, rod in pickle, switch, ferule, cudgel, truncheon, whip, bullwhip, lash, strap, thong, cowhide, knout, cat, cat o'nine tails, rope's end, pillory, stocks, whipping post, cucking stool, ducking stool, brank, trebuchet, trebuket, triangle, wooden horse, iron maiden, thumbscrew, boot, rack, wheel, iron heel, chinese water torture, treadmill, crank, galleys, scaffold, block, ax, guillotine, stake, cross, gallows, gibbet, tree, drop, noose, rope, halter, bowstring, death chair, electric chair, gas chamber, lethal injection, firing squad, mecate, house of correction, goaler, jailer, executioner, electrocutioner, lyncher, hangman, headsman, Jack Ketch.

Sharpness

N sharpness, acuity, acumination, spinosity, point, spike, spine, spicule, spiculum, needle, hypodermic needle, tack, nail, pin, prick, prickle, spur, rowel, barb, spit, cusp, horn, antler, snag, tag thorn, bristle, Adam's needle, bear grass, tine, yucca, nib, tooth, tusk, spoke, cog, ratchet, crag, crest, arete, cone peak, sugar loaf, pike, aiguille, spire, pyramid, steeple, beard, chevaux de frise, porcupine, hedgehog, brier, bramble, thistle, comb, awn, beggar's lice, bur, burr, catchweed, cleavers, clivers, goose, grass, hairif, hariff, flax comb, hackle, hatchel, heckle, wedge, knife edge, cutting edge, blade, edge tool, cutlery, knife, penknife, whittle, razor, razor blade, safety razor, straight razor, electric razor, scalpel, bistoury, lancet, plowshare, coulter, colter, hatchet, ax, pickax, mattock, pick, adze, gill, billhook, cleaver, cutter, scythe, sickle, scissors, shears, pruning shears, cutters, wire cutters, nail clipper, paper cutter, sword, bodkin, belduque, bowie knife, paring knife, bushwhacker, drawing knife, drawing shave, microtome, chisel, screwdriver blade, flint blade, guillotine, sharpener, hone, strop, grindstone, whetstone, novaculite, steel, emery, sharp, keen, acute, acicular, aciform, aculeated, acuminated, pointed, tapering, conical, pyramidal, mucronate, mucronated, spindle shaped, needle shaped, spiked, spiky, ensiform, peaked, salient, cusped, cuspidate, cuspidated, cornute, cornuted, cornicultate, prickly, spiny, spinous, spicular, thorny, bristling, muricated, pectinated, studded, thistly, briary, craggy, snaggy, digitated, two-edged, fusiform, dentiform, denticulated, toothed, odontoid, starlike, stellated, stelliform, sagittate, sagittiform, arrowheaded, arrowy, barbed, spurred, acinaciform, apiculate, apiculated, aristate, awned, awny, bearded, calamiform, cone-shaped, coniform, crestate, echinate, gladiate, lanceolate, lanciform, awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl- shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped, setarious, spinuliferous, subulate, tetrahedral, xiphoid, cutting, sharp edged, knife edged, sharp as a razor, keen as a razor, sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack, sharpened, set.