Gallows

Definition: Gallows

Gallows

Noun

1. Instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from which condemned persons are executed by hanging.

Date "gallows" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Specialty Definitions: Gallows

Domain	Definitions
Satire	GALLOWS, n. A stage for the performance of miracle plays, in which the leading actor is translated to heaven. In this country the gallows is chiefly remarkable for the number of persons who escape it. Whether on the gallows high Or where blood flows the reddest, The noblest place for man to die -- Is where he died the deadest. (Old play). Source: Devil's Dictionary.
Bible	Gallows Heb. 'ets, meaning "a tree" (Esther 6:4), a post or gibbet. In Gen. 40:19 and Deut. 21:22 the word is rendered "tree." Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.
	To dream that you are on a gallows, denotes that you will suffer from the maliciousness of false friends. For a young woman to dream that she sees her lover executed by this means, denotes that she will marry an unscrupulous and designing man. If you rescue any one from the gallows, it portends desirable acquisitions. To dream that you hang an enemy, denotes victory in all spheres. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....
Food & Agriculture	The structure from which the otter boards are hung when not in use and which support the warps when the net is towed. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Synonyms: Gallows

Synonyms: gallous (n), gallowstree (n), gibbet (n). (additional references)

Top

Synonyms within Context: Gallows

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Killing	Butcher, slayer, murderer, Cain, assassin, terrorist, cutthroat, garroter, bravo, Thug, Moloch, matador, sabreur; guet-a-pens; gallows, executioner. (punishment); man-eater, apache, hatchet man, highbinder.
Punishment	Execute; bring to the block, bring to the gallows; behead, decapitate, guillotine; decollate; hang, turn off, gibbet, bowstring, hang draw and quarter; shoot; decimate; burn; break on the wheel, crucify; empale, impale; flay; lynch; electrocute; gas, send to the gas chamber.
	Be executed, suffer the ultimate penalty; be hanged; come to the gallows, mount the gallows, swing, twist in the wind, dance upon nothing, die in one's shoes; be rightly served; be electrocuted, fry, ride the lightning; face the firing squad.
Scourge	Scaffold; block, ax, guillotine; stake; cross; gallows, gibbet, tree, drop, noose, rope, halter, bowstring; death chair, electric chair; gas chamber; lethal injection; firing squad; mecate.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Top

Crosswords: Gallows

English words defined with "gallows": Gallow tree, gallows bird, Gallows bitts, Gallows frame, Gallowses, Galwes ♦ hanging ♦ Patibulary, Patibulated ♦ Scapegallows. (references)

Specialty definitions using "gallows": ACORN ♦ CAESAR, CHATES, CHATTS ♦ DEADLY NEVERGREEN, DISMAL DITTY ♦ Fossa et Furca ♦ gallows timber, Gilderoy's Kite, Godfathers ♦ HANG GALLOWS LOOK, Hangman's Wages, Hempen Fever ♦ loft rigger ♦ NECK VERSE, NEWMAN'S LIFT ♦ outside rigger ♦ purse seiner ♦ Ride up Holborn Hill ♦ SCAPEGALLOWS, SHERIFF'S PICTURE FRAME, STOOL ♦ THREE-LEGGED MARE, TOPPING CHEAT ♦ Zeresh. (references)

Etymologies containing "gallows": Bargeboard ♦ Galwes ♦ Scapegallows. (references)

Top

Modern Usage: Gallows

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	I walked to the gallows, and they put the noose around my neck. (Hold Back Tomorrow; writing credit: Hugo Haas) From the gallows. (Jekyll & Hyde; writing credit: Robert Louis Stevenson; David Wickes) I have no fear of the gallows. (Love and Death; writing credit: Woody Allen)
Movie/TV Titles	The Crossroad Gallows (1958) Three Steps to the Gallows (1954) The Golden Gallows (1922) Reunited at the Gallows (1909)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Commercial Usage: Gallows

Domain	Title
Books	Build My Gallows High (Film Ink Series) (reference) By the Neck Until Dead: The Gallows of Nuremberg (reference) Death at Gallows Green (reference) Gallows Thief (reference) Gallows View: An Inspector Banks Mystery (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Elevator to the Gallows (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Chorus from the Gallows (reference) Gallows Pole [IMPORT] (reference) In the Shadow of the Gallows Pole (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Image Slideshow: Gallows

Top

Familiar Quotations: Gallows

Author	Quotation
Cardinal De Richelieu	Give me six lines written by the most honorable person alive, and I shall find enough in them to condemn them to the gallows.
Edmund Burke	In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top

Use in Literature: Gallows

Title	Author	Quote
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	Tom Hyde, the tinker, standing on the gallows, was asked if he had anything to say.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top

Usage Frequency: Gallows

"Gallows" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 93.89% of the time. "Gallows" is used about 131 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (plural)	93.89%	123	28,925
Noun (proper)	4.58%	6	143,867
Lexical Verb (-s form)	1.53%	2	245,945
Total	100.00%	131	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top

Expression: Gallows

Expressions using "gallows": gallows bird ♦ Gallows bitts ♦ Gallows frame ♦ gallows hill ♦ gallows humor ♦ gallows humour ♦ gallows look ♦ gallows top ♦ Gallows tree ♦ have a gallows look. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "gallows": gallows-like, gallows-tree, gallows-trees.
	Ending with "gallows": super-gallows.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Gallows

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
gallows	129
gallows point	18
hanging gallows	18
gallows hill	17
gallows pole	12
gallows point resort	10
gallows hanging woman	10
gallows humor	8
gallows picture	7
gallows lyrics pole	7
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Modern Translations: Gallows

Language		Translations for "gallows"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		varje (droop, hanging), trekëmbësh për varje (gallows-trees), krah mbështetës. (various references)

Arabic		‏مشنقة (gibbet), ‏مشانق, ‏حملا ت البنطلونات. (various references)

Bulgarian		успоредка (parallel bars), скеле (airframe, falsework, scaffold, scaffolding, stage, staging), бесилка (gallows tree, gibbet, rope, tree). (various references)

Czech		šibenice (gallows-trees, gibbet). (various references)

Danish		galge, forvogn. (various references)

Dutch		galg. (various references)

Farsi		مستحق اعدام , چوبه دار (Gibbet, Tree), اعدام , دار (Scaffold), بداراویزی . (various references)

Finnish		hirsipuu. (various references)

French		potence. (various references)

Frisian		galge. (various references)

German		galgen (boom, crossbeam, gibbet, hangman). (various references)

Greek		κρεμάλα (gibbet, noose, scaffold), αγχόνη (gibbet). (various references)

Hebrew		תלי�" (hanging, suspension), עץ תלי�" (gibbet, scaffold), �'ר�"ום (gibbet, scaffold), צליב�" (crucifixion, hanging, scaffold), צלוב (crucified, scaffold, stake). (various references)

Hungarian		akasztófa (derrick, gallows-tree, gallows-trees, gibbet, scaffold, tree), nyújtóállvány, bitófa (gallows-tree, tree), bitó (gallows-tree, tree). (various references)

Indonesian		gantungan (hanger), tiang gantungan. (various references)

Italian		forca (crotch, crowfoot, crutch, fork, gibbet, hay fork, pitchfork), patibolo (gibbet, scaffold). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		絞首台 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		しょけい� い (scaffold), �"うしゅ� い. (various references)

Manx		fer aarloo da'n chriy (gallows bird). (various references)

Norwegian		galge. (various references)

Pig Latin		allowsgay.(various references)

Portuguese		que galopa, jogo dianteiro, forca (coachbox, gallowstree, gibbet), enforcamento (gibbet, halter, hanging), cavalete de prensa (coachbox, gallowstree), aros de arrasto. (various references)

Romanian		spânzurãtoare (gibbet, halter), furci. (various references)

Russian		виселица (crap, gallows-trees, gibbet). (various references)

Scottish		croich (gibbet). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		gubilište (scaffold), vešala (gallows-trees, gibbet). (various references)

Spanish		horca (crotch, fork, gibbet, hay fork, pitchfork). (various references)

Swedish		galge (coat hanger, gallow, gallow tree, gallowtree, gambrel, gibbet, hanger). (various references)

Turkish		ipe çekme (halter, hanging, rope), idam sehpası (gallows tree, gibbet), darağacı (gallows tree, gibbet, scaffold, tree), asarak idam etme, adam asma (hatchet job). (various references)

Ukranian		шибениця (gallows tree, gibbet, tree), негідник (blackguard, cad, caitiff, cullion, miscreant, niddering, pimp, rascal, reprobate, scoundrel, skunk, thief, varlet, wretch), злочинний (criminal, culpable, felonious, flagitious, guilty, maleficent, malfeasant, offending, wrong, wrongful), порочний (cammed, dark, depraved, naughty, perverse, rampant, vicious, wicked), повішення (gibbet). (various references)

Vietnamese		giá treo c (gallows-tree), kẻ đáng treo c (gallows-bird), kẻ đáng chém (gallows-bird), đáng đem treo c (gallows-ripe). (various references)

Welsh		crocbren (gibbet). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Top

Ancestral Language Translations: Gallows

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	arbor, arbore, arborem, arbores, arbori, arboribus, arboris, arborum. (various references)
Old English	450-1100	gealgtreo, gealgu. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top

Bible Trace: Gallows

Language	Date	Source	Esther Chapter 7, Verse 10
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Kai ekremasqh aman epi tou xulou o htoimasen mardocaiw kai tote o basileuV ekopasen tou qumou
Latin	405	Vulgate	Suspensus est itaque Aman in patibulo quod paraverat Mardocheo et regis ira quievit
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	And so Aman is hangid in the iebet, that he hadde maad redi to Mardoche, and the kingis wrathe restide.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	So Haman was put to death by hanging him on the pillar he had made for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath became less.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Matched Bible Translations: Gallows

Language	Esther Chapter 7, Verse 10
Albanian	Kështu Hamanin e varën në trekëmbëshin që kishte përgatitur për Mardokeun. Dhe zemërimi i mbretit u qetësua.
Bulgarian	И така, обесиха Амана на бесилката, която бе приготвил за Мардохея. Тогава царската ярост утихна.
Cebuano	Busa ilang gibitay si Aman sa bitayan nga iyang giandam alang kang Mardocheo. Unya ang kaligutgut sa hari nahupay.
Chinese	於是人將 �"� 曼挂在他為末底 �"� 所豫備的木架上．王的忿 �' 這 �" 止息。
Croatian	Hamana objesiše na vješala koja bijaše pripravio Mordokaju, i kraljeva se srdžba utiša.
Danish	Og de hængte Haman i den Galge, han havde rejst til Mordokaj. Så lagde Kongens Vrede sig.
Dutch	Alzo hingen zij Haman aan de galg, die hij voor Mordechai had doen bereiden; en de grimmigheid des konings werd gestild.
Finnish	Niin ripustettiin Haaman hirsipuuhun, jonka hän oli pystyttänyt Mordokain varalle. Sitten kuninkaan viha asettui.
French	Et l`on pendit Haman au bois qu`il avait préparé pour Mardochée. Et la colère du roi s`apaisa.
German	Also hängte man Haman an den Baum, den er Mardochai gemacht hatte. Da legte sich des Königs Zorn.
Haitian Creole	Se konsa yo pann Aman nan poto li te pare pou Madoche a. Apre sa, kòlè wa a tonbe.
Hungarian	Felakaszták azért Hámánt a fára, a melyet készített Márdokeusnak, és megszünék a király haragja.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Demikianlah Haman digantung pada tiang yang telah didirikannya untuk Mordekhai. Baru setelah itu redalah murka raja.
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Lalu Hamanpun digantungkan oranglah pada tiang kayu yang telah diperbuatnya akan Mordekhai itu; setalah itu maka padamlah murka baginda.
Italian	Così Am� n fu impiccato al palo che aveva preparato per Mardocheo. E l'ira del re si calmò.
Korean	모 르 �"� 개 를 달 � 자 한 나 무 에 하 만 을 다 니 왕 의 노 가 그 치 니 라
Manx Gaelic	Myr shen hrogh ad Haman er y chriy v'eh er chiarail son Mordecai. Eisht va jymmoose y ree er ny veeinaghey.
Maori	Heoi taronatia ana a Hamana ki runga ki te tarawa i oti ra i a ia mo Mororekai, a ka mariri iho te riri o te kingi.
Modern Greek	Και εκρεμασαν τον Αμαν επι του ξυλου, το οποιον ητοιμασε δια τον Μαροδοχαιον. Και κατεπαυσεν ο θυμος του βασιλεως.
Norwegian	Så hengte de Haman i den galge han hadde gjort i stand for Mordekai, og kongens vrede la sig.
Portuguese	Enforcaram-no, pois, na forca que ele tinha preparado para Mardoqueu. Então o furor do rei se aplacou.
Rumanian	Wi au spknzurat pe Haman pe spknzurqtoarea pe care o pregqtise el pentru Mardoheu. Wi mknia kmpqratului s`a potolit.
Russian	й � ПЧЕУЙМЙ бНБОБ ОБ �"ЕТЕЧЕ, ЛПФПТПЕ ПО � ТЙЗПФПЧЙМ �"МС нБТ�"ПИЕС. й ЗОЕЧ �"БТС ХФЙИ.
Spanish	Así colgaron a Amán en la horca que él había preparado para Mardoqueo. Y se apaciguó la ira del rey.
Swedish	Så hängde de upp Haman på den påle, som han hade låtit sätta upp för Mordokai. Sedan lade sig konungens vrede.
Thai	เขาก็แขวนฮามานบนตะแลงแกงซึ่งท่านไ�"้เตรียมไว้สำหรับโมรเ�"คัย แล้วพระพิโรธของกษัตริย์ก็สงบลง
Ukrainian	І повісили �"амана на шибениці, яку він приготовив був для Мордехая, а лютість царева втихла...
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Derivations & Misspellings: Gallows

Derivations
	Words beginning with "gallows": gallowses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Gallows" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Callows, galloes, galors, galow, Gidlow, Gwallawg, sallows. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top

Rhyming with "Gallows"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "gallows" (pronounced ga"lōz)
4	-a" l ō z	hallows, mallows.
3	-l ō z	armadillos, bedfellows, bellows, billows, fellows, follows, furloughs, halos, hollows, marshmallows, Milos, pillows, solos, swallows, yellows.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Top

Anagrams: Gallows

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-g-l-l-o-s-w"
	-1 letter: allows, sallow, sawlog.
	-2 letters: aglow, allow, awols, galls, gaols, glows, goals, ollas, salol, walls.
	-3 letters: alls, alow, also, awls, awol, gall, gals, gaol, glow, goal, goas, lags, laws, logs, lows, olla, owls, sago, sall, slag, slaw, slog, slow, sola, swag, wags, wall, wogs.
	-4 letters: ago, all, als, awl, gal, gas, goa, gos, lag, las, law, log, low, owl, sag, sal, saw, sol, sow, wag, was, wog, wos.
	-5 letters: ag, al, as, aw, go, la, lo, os, ow, so, wo.
	Words containing the letters "a-g-l-l-o-s-w"
	+2 letters: gallowses, sallowing.
	+3 letters: alpenglows, shallowing, swallowing.
	+4 letters: disallowing, gallowglass, glassblower, snowballing, wholesaling.
	+5 letters: glassblowers, glassblowing, stonewalling.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.