GIBBET


Meaning of GIBBET in English

I. ˈjibə̇t, usu -ə̇d.+V noun

( -s )

Etymology: Middle English gibet gallows, from Old French, forked stick, gallows

1. or gibbet tree

a. : an upright post with a projecting arm for hanging the bodies of executed criminals in chains or irons

b. : gallows

2. : the projecting arm of a crane : jib

II. transitive verb

( -ed/-ing/-s )

1.

a. : to hang on a gibbet as a warning or for exposure to public scorn

soon should I … be mangled on a wheel, then gibbeted to blacken for the vultures — Samuel Rogers

b. : to expose to infamy or public scorn

libel suits were successfully brought by men … who had been incidentally gibbeted — Times Literary Supplement

2.

a. : to execute by hanging on a gibbet

gibbeted the Covenanters because they denied the rights of a civil sovereign to frame liturgies — J.S.Blackie

b. : to hang as if on a gibbet

half a dozen great cats hung gibbeted there and rows of stoats — David Garnett

III. noun

( -s )

Etymology: perhaps alteration of Middle French jupet distance to which one can shout, from juper to shout, of imitative origin

obsolete : a hunting signal (as to a dog or hawk)

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.