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English
Pronunciation
The official guillotine
(sense 1) of
Luxembourg , last used in 1821.
Etymology 1
Borrowed from French guillotine , named after the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who proposed its use for capital punishment.
Noun
guillotine (plural guillotines )
( historical , also figuratively ) 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.
1837 , Thomas Carlyle , “The Procession”, in The French Revolution: A History , volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall , →OCLC , book IV (States-General), pages 143–144 :For two-and-twenty years he [Joseph-Ignace Guillotin ], unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine , see nothing but guillotine ; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to outlive [Julius] Cæsar ’s.
( by extension )
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 .
( surgery ) An instrument with a sliding blade for cutting the tonsils , uvula , or other body parts .
Hyponyms: ( for tonsils ) tonsillotome , tonsilotome , ( for the uvula ) uvulotome
( law , politics , informal )
( British ) 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 .
2019 October 22, Stephen Kerr , Member of Parliament for Stirling , “Second Reading of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill”, in House of Commons Debates (House of Commons ) , volume 666 , archived from the original on 24 October 2019 , column 860 :The right hon. Gentleman is making a great stooshie about time in relation to this Bill, but was it not the case that, when the SNP [Scottish National Party] Scottish Government introduced their continuity Bill in the Scottish Parliament, they operated a ruthless guillotine to prevent proper scrutiny of it? That is the case; they ran a guillotine on that Bill, and there was a very limited amount of time allowed for debate and scrutiny, yet he complains about that happening here.
( US ) A legislative motion that debate be ended and a vote taken ; a cloture .
Derived terms
Translations
machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation
Albanian: gijotinë (sq) f
Arabic: مِقْصَلَة f ( miqṣala )
Egyptian Arabic: جيلوتين m ( gilyotin )
Armenian: գիլյոտին (hy) ( gilyotin ) , կառափնատ (hy) ( kaṙapʻnat )
Azerbaijani: gilyotin
Belarusian: гільяці́на f ( hilʹjacína ) , гільяты́на f ( hilʹjatýna )
Bulgarian: гилоти́на (bg) f ( gilotína )
Catalan: guillotina (ca) f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 斷頭台 / 断头台 ( dyun6 tau4 toi4 )
Mandarin: 斷頭台 / 断头台 (zh) ( duàntóutái )
Czech: gilotina (cs) f
Danish: guillotine c
Dutch: guillotine (nl) f , valbijl (nl) f
Esperanto: gilotino
Estonian: giljotiin
Finnish: giljotiini (fi)
French: guillotine (fr) f
Georgian: გილიოტინა ( gilioṭina )
German: Guillotine (de) f , Fallbeil (de) n
Greek: λαιμητόμος (el) f ( laimitómos ) , γκιλοτίνα (el) f ( gkilotína ) , καρμανιόλα (el) f ( karmanióla )
Hebrew: גִּילְיוֹטִינָה f ( gilyotína )
Hindi: गिलोटिन ( giloṭin )
Hungarian: nyaktiló (hu) , guillotine (hu)
Icelandic: fallöxi
Ido: gilotino (io)
Interlingua: guillotina
Italian: ghigliottina (it) f
Japanese: ギロチン (ja) ( girochin ) , 断頭台 (ja) ( だんとうだい, dantōdai )
Kazakh: гильотина ( gilotina )
Khmer: ម៉ាស៊ីនកាត់ក ( maasiinkatkɑɑ )
Korean: 단두대(斷頭臺) (ko) ( dandudae ) , 기요틴 (ko) ( giyotin )
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: meşneqe , giyotîn
Kyrgyz: гильотина ( gilotina )
Ladino: giyotina f
Latvian: giljotīna f
Lithuanian: giljotina f
Macedonian: гилотина f ( gilotina )
Malay: gilotin
Norman: dgilliotinne f
Norwegian:
Bokmål: giljotin m
Nynorsk: giljotin m
Persian: گیوتین (fa) ( giyotin )
Polish: gilotyna (pl) f
Portuguese: guilhotina (pt) f
Romanian: ghilotină (ro) f
Russian: гильоти́на (ru) f ( gilʹotína )
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: гѝљотина f
Roman: gìljotina (sh) f
Slovak: gilotína (sk) f
Slovene: giljotina (sl) f
Spanish: guillotina (es) f
Swedish: giljotin (sv) c
Tagalog: gilyotina
Tajik: гилйотина ( gilyotina )
Thai: กิโยตีน (th) ( gì-yoo-dtiin )
Turkish: giyotin (tr)
Ukrainian: гільйоти́на f ( hilʹjotýna )
Uzbek: gilʼotina
Venetian: ghiƚotina (vec) f
Vietnamese: máy chém (vi) , đoạn đầu đài (斷頭臺 )
Volapük: gilyoten
Yiddish: גיליאָטין f ( gilyotin )
device used for cutting the pages of books, stacks of paper, etc., to straight edges
instrument for cutting the tonsils, uvula, or other body parts
parliamentary procedure for fixing the date when the committee stage of a bill must end, in order to cut short discussion about the bill
legislative motion that debate be ended and a vote taken
— see cloture
Etymology 2
Borrowed from French guillotiner ( “ to execute with a guillotine, to guillotine ” ) , from guillotine (see etymology 1 ) + -er ( suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs ) .
Verb
guillotine (third-person singular simple present guillotines , present participle guillotining , simple past and past participle guillotined ) ( transitive )
To use a guillotine (on someone or something).
( also figuratively ) To execute (someone) with a guillotine .
Many counterrevolutionaries were guillotined during the French Revolution.
To cut or trim (a body part , a stack of paper , etc.) with a guillotine .
( law , politics , informal )
( British ) To end discussion (about a parliamentary bill or part of one) by invoking a guillotine procedure .
( US ) To end (a legislative debate ) by invoking cloture .
Derived terms
Translations
to execute (someone) with a guillotine
to cut or trim (body parts, 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
Notes
References
^ “guillotine, n. ”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press , March 2021 ; “guillotine, n. ”, in Lexico , Dictionary.com ; Oxford University Press , 2019–2022 .
^ “guillotine, v. ”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press , March 2021 ; “guillotine, v. ”, in Lexico , Dictionary.com ; Oxford University Press , 2019–2022 .
Further reading
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from French guillotine . Named after Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. First attested in the early 1790s.
Pronunciation
IPA (key ) : /ˌɡi.joːˈti.nə/
Hyphenation: guil‧lo‧ti‧ne
Rhymes: -inə
Noun
guillotine f (plural guillotines , diminutive guillotinetje n )
guillotine
Synonym: valbijl
Derived terms
French
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Guillotin . Named after French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who proposed its use for capital punishment. The surname is a diminutive of Guillot .
Noun
guillotine f (plural guillotines )
guillotine ( machine )
Derived terms
Descendants
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
guillotine
inflection of guillotiner :
first / third-person singular present indicative / subjunctive
second-person singular imperative
Further reading
Indonesian
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French guillotine , Guillot . After Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin , who proposed its use for capital punishment.
Noun
guillotine (first-person possessive guillotineku , second-person possessive guillotinemu , third-person possessive guillotinenya )
guillotine ( machine ) .
Further reading
Spanish
Verb
guillotine
inflection of guillotinar :
first / third-person singular present subjunctive
third-person singular imperative