guillotine (redirected from guillotining)

guillotine

Instrument for inflicting capital punishment by decapitation. A minimal wooden structure, it supported a heavy blade that, when released, slid down in vertical guides to sever the victim's head. It was introduced in France in 1792 in the French Revolution, though similar devices had been used in Scotland, England, and other European countries, often for executing criminals of noble birth. The name derived from a French physician and member of the National Assembly, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who was instrumental in passing a law requiring all sentences of death to be carried out “by means of a machine,” so that execution by decapitation would no longer be confined to nobles and executions would be as painless as possible. The last execution by guillotine in France took place in 1977.

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guillotine

1. 

a. a device for beheading persons, consisting of a weighted blade set between two upright posts

b. the guillotine execution by this instrument

2. a device for cutting or trimming sheet material, such as paper or sheet metal, consisting of a blade inclined at a small angle that descends onto the sheet

3. Med a surgical instrument for removing tonsils, growths in the throat, etc.

4. (in Parliament, etc.) a form of closure under which a bill is divided into compartments, groups of which must be completely dealt with each day

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guillotine [‚gē·yə′tēn]

(graphic arts)

A heavy steel knife used to cut printing plates made of copper, zinc, or magnesium and to trim excess metal from electrotype or stereotype casts.

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guillotine

invented during French Revolution as a humane method of capital punishment. [Fr. Hist.: Benét, 429]

See : Execution