gibbet

English

Etymology

From Middle English gibet, from Old French gibet (French gibet), either from Frankish *gibb (“forked stick”) or from Latin gibbus (“hunchbacked”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɪbɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɪbɪt

Noun

gibbet (plural gibbets)

1. An upright post with a crosspiece used for execution and subsequent public display.

   Synonym: gallows

   • 1702, [Daniel Defoe], “Part I”, in Reformation of Manners, a Satyr, , →OCLC, page 22:

     Thy Friends without the help of Prophecie, / Read Goals and Gibbets in thy Deſtiny; […]

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Francesca Carrara. , volume III, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 241-242:

     Why, your cavalier is a rebel—an exile, whose property is confiscated, and for whose neck the gibbet stands prepared!

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.

Translations

Verb

gibbet (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.

Translations

See also

• flibberty-gibbet (probably etymologically unrelated)

References

Middle English

Noun

gibbet

1. Alternative form of gibet