[guil.lo.tine] n [F, fr. Joseph Guillotin d. 1814 Fr. physician] (1793) 1: a machine for beheading by means of a heavy blade that slides down in vertical guides
2: a shearing machine or instrument (as a paper cutter) that in action resembles a guillotine 3 chiefly Brit: closure by the imposition of a predetermined time limit on the consideration of specific sections of a bill or portions of other legislative business -- guillotine vt