Definition of "gibbet"

gibbet

/ˈd͡ʒɪbɪt/

noun
plural gibbets
1. An upright post with a crosspiece used for execution and subsequent public display.
  Quotations
  Thy Friends without the help of Prophecie, / Read Goals[sic – meaning Gaols] and Gibbets in thy Deſtiny; […]
  1702, [Daniel Defoe], “Part I”, in Reformation of Manners, a Satyr, [London: s.n.], page 22
  No, had every Commandment but a Gibbet belonging to it, I ſhould not have had four King's Evidences to-day ſwear impudently I was a Papiſt, when I was never at Maſs yet ſince I was born, nor indeed at any other Worſhip theſe twenty Years.
  1728, Thomas Otway, “The Atheist, or, the Second Part of the Soldier’s Fortune”, in The Works of Mr. Thomas Otway, volume II, London, page 37
  Why, your cavalier is a rebel—an exile, whose property is confiscated, and for whose neck the gibbet stands prepared!
  1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), pages 241-242
2. The projecting arm of a crane, from which the load is suspended; the jib.
3. A human-shaped structure made of iron bands designed to publicly display the corpse of an executed criminal.
verb
third-person singular simple present gibbets, present participle gibbeting or gibbetting, simple past and past participle gibbeted or gibbetted
1. (transitive) To execute (someone), or display (a body), on a gibbet.
2. (transitive) To expose (someone) to ridicule or scorn.

Definition of "gibbet"

gibbet

noun

Quotations

verb