guillotine means A machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation, consisting of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy diagonal-edged blade which is dropped onto the neck of the person to be executed; also, execution using this machine. It carries an Arena rating of 1667, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, guillotine ranks #8 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #330 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #432 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,141 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
guillotine is pronounced /ˈɡɪlətiːn/.
Why “guillotine” is a great word
An apparatus for execution by decapitation, consisting of a tall, upright frame from which a weighted blade is dropped onto the neck of the condemned. Borrowed from French guillotine, named after the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who proposed its use for capital punishment in 1789. Unlike a 'scaffold'—a platform for various forms of judicial death—or a 'paper cutter'—a mundane office implement sharing the mechanism—the guillotine is the mechanism itself, the terrible engine of republican equality. It is the shriek of the falling lunette being locked, the slick whisper of rope through a pulley, and the definitive, wet thud of steel meeting wood; a perfect machine whose horrifying efficiency made death both impersonal and industrial, the Enlightenment's grim geometry of finality.
Etymology
Borrowed from French guillotine, named after the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who proposed its use for capital punishment.
noun
- A machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation, consisting of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy diagonal-edged blade which is dropped onto the neck of the person to be executed; also, execution using this machine.
- A device or machine with a cutting blade.; A device used for cutting the pages of books, stacks of paper, etc., to straight edges, usually by means of a hinged or sliding blade attached to a flat platform.
- A device or machine with a cutting blade.; An instrument with a sliding blade for cutting the tonsils, uvula, or other body parts.
- A parliamentary procedure for fixing the dates when various stages of discussion of a bill must end, to ensure that the enactment of the bill proceeds expeditiously.
- A legislative motion that debate be ended and a vote taken; a cloture.
verb
- To use a guillotine (on someone or something).; To execute (someone) with a guillotine.e.g.“Many counterrevolutionaries were guillotined during the French Revolution.”
- To use a guillotine (on someone or something).; To cut or trim (a body part, a stack of paper, etc.) with a guillotine.
- To end discussion (about a parliamentary bill or part of one) by invoking a guillotine procedure.
- To end (a legislative debate) by invoking cloture.
- To end anything abruptly.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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