GIBBET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gibbet mean? 

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

1. alternative terms for gallows

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

• GIBBET (verb)
  The verb GIBBET has 2 senses:

1. hang on an execution instrument

2. expose to ridicule or public scorn

  Familiarity information: GIBBET used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GIBBET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Alternative terms for gallows

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

gallous; gallows-tree; gallows tree; gibbet

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

gallows (an instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from which a condemned person is executed by hanging)

Derivation:

gibbet (hang on an execution instrument)

• GIBBET (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hang on an execution instrument

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "gibbet" is one way to...):

hang; string up (kill by hanging)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

gibbet (alternative terms for gallows)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Expose to ridicule or public scorn

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

gibbet; pillory

Hypernyms (to "gibbet" is one way to...):

display; exhibit; expose (to show, make visible or apparent)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

It was ’e that beat Noah James, the Guardsman, and was afterwards nearly killed by Jem Belcher, in the ’ollow of Wimbledon Common by Abbershaw’s gibbet.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We're that near the gibbet that my neck's stiff with thinking on it.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

They all appeared with dejected looks, and in the meanest habit; most of them telling me, “they died in poverty and disgrace, and the rest on a scaffold or a gibbet.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He himself slept peacefully and snored aloud, yet my heart was sore for him, wicked as he was, to think on the dark perils that environed and the shameful gibbet that awaited him.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I was quite of the same way of thinking as the others, and would as soon have thought of passing my night at Jacob’s gibbet on Ditchling Common as in the haunted house of Cliffe Royal.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It went to all our hearts, I think, to leave them in that wretched state; but we could not risk another mutiny; and to take them home for the gibbet would have been a cruel sort of kindness.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)