GALLOWS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gallows mean? 

• GALLOWS (noun)
  The noun GALLOWS has 1 sense:

1. an instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from which a condemned person is executed by hanging

  Familiarity information: GALLOWS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GALLOWS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from which a condemned person is executed by hanging

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("gallows" is a kind of...):

instrument of execution (an instrument designed and used to take the life of a condemned person)

Meronyms (parts of "gallows"):

halter; hangman's halter; hangman's rope; hemp; hempen necktie (a rope that is used by a hangman to execute persons who have been condemned to death by hanging)

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gallows"):

gallous; gallows-tree; gallows tree; gibbet (alternative terms for gallows)

 Context examples 

But I'll own up fairly, I've the shakes upon me for the gallows.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It was no longer the fear of the gallows, it was the horror of being Hyde that racked me.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

No, said the other, that is not an honest calling, and what can one look to earn by it in the end but the gallows?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Foul bird! we found thee by the gallows like a carrion-crow.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Some of us found our way to the gallows, and some to Siberia.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“That fellow will rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not entirely devoid of interest.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A pause—then Flo cried out, "Bless me, there's a gallows and a man going up."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

So was the black horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant crowd surrounding a gallows.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The matter was so prearranged that it is my belief that they brought with them some sort of block or pulley which might serve as a gallows.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was an age of eccentricity, but he had carried his peculiarities to a length which surprised even the out-and-outers by marrying the sweetheart of a famous highwayman when the gallows had come between her and her lover.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)