guillotine
Revolutionary French device
A guillotine is a device for beheading, consisting of a heavy blade that slides down between vertical guides to sever the head from the body.
Associated with the French Revolution, when it became the standard method of execution.
The word extends to paper cutters with similar blade-drop mechanisms.
As a verb, to guillotine is to execute by this method or, in British parliamentary procedure, to cut off debate by imposing a time limit.
Removal of head
- decapitationSevering head from body
- scaffoldTemporary elevated work structure
- bladeFlat cutting edge
- executionerOne who kills condemned
Reign of Terror · French Revolution · Robespierre · Marie Antoinette · Louis XVI · basket · block · public execution
Sense of emotional resolution
- clotureProcedure ending legislative discussion
- filibusterDelaying tactic through speech
- debateFormal argument on issues
- time limitMaximum duration permitted
amendment · motion · vote · procedure · bill · obstruction · curtailment · House of Commons
Cutting with heavy blade
- choppingCutting into pieces
- firingTerminating employment
- layoffTermination without cause
- terminationAct of ending something
sacking · redundancy · downsizing · ouster · cuts · headcount · purge · pink slip
beheading
Removal of head
- decapitationSevering head from body
- scaffoldTemporary elevated work structure
- bladeFlat cutting edge
executioner · Reign of Terror · French Revolution · Robespierre · Marie Antoinette · Louis XVI · basket · block · public execution · capital punishment
blade
Flat cutting edge
chop · trim · stack · ream · straight-cut · lever · grid · mat · ruler · craft
closure
Sense of emotional resolution
- clotureProcedure ending legislative discussion
- filibusterDelaying tactic through speech
- debateFormal argument on issues
time limit · amendment · motion · vote · procedure · bill · obstruction · curtailment · House of Commons · allocation
axing
Cutting with heavy blade
termination · sacking · redundancy · downsizing · ouster · cuts · headcount · purge · pink slip · severance
trimming
Cutting away excess
section · gathering · head · tail · leaf · case · binding · codex · gilt · gilding
- EponymsDarwinian, Alzheimer's disease, Freudian slip, cardigan, Parkinson's disease
- French HistoryNapoleon Bonaparte, French Revolution, Napoleon, Bastille, Reign of Terror
- French RevolutionBastille, Robespierre, French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, Jacobins
- 1790sFrench Revolution, Reign of Terror, Robespierre, Jacobins, sans-culottes
- executionexecution, lethal injection, firing squad, gas chamber, electric chair
- penal historyprison, prisons, gaols, jails, penitentiaries
guillotinegallows
Execution hanging apparatus
hanging · lethal injection · electric chair · firing squad · burning at the stake
guillotineslow death
Extended process of dying
death by a thousand cuts · torture · burning alive · drawing and quartering · crucifixion
- guillotine chokeSubmission hold targeting throat