guillotine

guil·lo·tine  (gl-tn, g-)

n.

1. A device consisting of a heavy blade held aloft between upright guides and dropped to behead the victim below.

2. An instrument, such as a paper cutter, similar in action to a guillotine.

tr.v. guil·lo·tined, guil·lo·tin·ing, guil·lo·tines

1. To behead with a guillotine.

2. To cut with or as if with a guillotine.

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[French, after Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814), French physician.]

Word History: "At half past 12 the guillotine severed her head from her body." So reads the statement containing the first recorded use of guillotine in English, found in the Annual Register of 1793. Ironically, the guillotine, which became the most notable symbol of the excesses of the French Revolution, was named for a humanitarian physician, Joseph Ignace Guillotin. Guillotin, a member of the French Constituent Assembly, recommended in a speech to that body on October 10, 1789, that executions be performed by a beheading device rather than by hanging, the method used for commoners, or by the sword, reserved for the nobility. He argued that beheading by machine was quicker and less painful than the work of the rope and the sword. In 1791 the Assembly did indeed adopt beheading by machine as the state's preferred method of execution. A beheading device designed by Dr. Antoine Louis, secretary of the College of Surgeons, was first used on April 25, 1792, to execute a highwayman named Pelletier or Peletier. The device was called a louisette or louison after its inventor's name, but because of Guillotin's famous speech, his name became irrevocably associated with the machine. After Guillotin's death in 1814, his children tried unsuccessfully to get the device's name changed. When their efforts failed, they were allowed to change their name instead.

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guillotine

Noun

1. a device formerly used, esp. in France, for beheading people, consisting of a weighted blade between two upright posts, which was dropped on the neck

2. a device with a blade for cutting paper

Verb

[-tining, -tined]

to behead with a guillotine [after J I Guillotin, who advocated its use]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	guillotine - closure imposed on the debate of specific sections of a bill closure by compartment cloture, gag law, gag rule, closure - a rule for limiting or ending debate in a deliberative body
	2.	guillotine - instrument of execution that consists of a weighted blade between two vertical poles; used for beheading people instrument of execution - an instrument designed and used to take the life of a condemned person
Verb	1.	guillotine - kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine; "The French guillotined many Vietnamese while they occupied the country" behead, decapitate, decollate - cut the head of; "the French King was beheaded during the Revolution"

Translations

guillotine [ˈgɪlətiːn] n → guillotina

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guillotine [ˈgɪlətiːn] n → guillotine f;

(for paper) → massicot m

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guillotine [ˈgɪlətiːn] n → Guillotine f, Fallbeil nt;

(for paper) → (Papier)schneidemaschine f

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guillotine [ˈgɪlətiːn] n → ghigliottina