gibbet
/ˈdʒɪbɪt/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈdʒɪbɪt/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈji-bət/ (ame, mw)
gibbet — noun
- gibbetsingular
- gibbetsplural
1. a tall wooden device built with a horizontal beam from which the corpses of exec
a tall wooden device built with a horizontal beam from which the corpses of executed lawbreakers were hung in past times to frighten the public into obedience
The old gibbet still stood on the hill, a grim reminder of 18th-century punishments.
collocation: gibbet still stood
The museum built a replica of a gibbet to show visitors how public executions were once carried out in England.
collocation: replica of a gibbet
Local farmers avoided the crossroads where the gibbet displayed the remains of the highwayman.
The iron chains on the gibbet creaked in the wind, a sound the villagers never forgot.
文法句型
gibbet + stands/is erected
用法筆記
The gibbet (also called gallows) served both to execute prisoners and to display their corpses afterward. Unlike a simple gallows used only for hanging, a gibbet often had an arm from which chained bodies were left to rot as a deterrent.
常見錯誤
gibbet — verb
- gibbetpresent simple I / you / we / they
- gibbets3rd person singular
- gibbeting-ing form
- gibbetedpast simple
1. to publicly humiliate or criticize someone so severely that their reputation is
to publicly humiliate or criticize someone so severely that their reputation is ruined, often in print or through public mockery
The local newspaper gibbeted the council member for accepting bribes from a construction company.
transitive: gibbeted [someone] for [wrongdoing]
After the scandal, the politician was gibbeted in cartoons and editorials across the country.
passive: was gibbeted in [medium]
The critic's harsh review gibbeted the young novelist's first book, calling it an embarrassment to literature.
- praise
to express warm approval of someone's achievements or qualities
文法句型
be gibbeted for + noun phrase
gibbet + someone + as + noun
用法筆記
This figurative sense is always negative and implies cruel or excessive public mockery. The subject of the verb is usually a person with influence — a journalist, critic, or rival — not an institution or law.
常見錯誤
2. to hang the dead body of an executed person on a gibbet, chaining it in place so
to hang the dead body of an executed person on a gibbet, chaining it in place so that it remains visible to the public as a deterrent
The pirate captain's body was gibbeted at the harbor mouth, where every incoming ship could see it.
passive: body was gibbeted at [location]
After the execution, the sheriff ordered the traitor to be gibbeted in chains on the town wall.
Visitors to the old fortress can still see the iron cage used to gibbet criminals in the 1600s.
文法句型
be gibbeted + place phrase
gibbet + body
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 3 (EXECUTE BY HANGING): this sense assumes the person is already dead. The verb describes displaying the corpse, not carrying out the execution itself. The body was often coated in tar to slow decay.
3. to kill a person by suspending them by the neck from a gibbet, a practice common
to kill a person by suspending them by the neck from a gibbet, a practice common in earlier centuries as a publicly ordered punishment
In 17th-century England, horse thieves were sometimes gibbeted at a crossroads to discourage others from committing the same crime.
passive: could be gibbeted for [crime]
The court declared that the captured rebel would be gibbeted at dawn on the castle ramparts.
The old chronicle records that the sheriff gibbeted three highwaymen in one week during the winter of 1723.
文法句型
be gibbeted for + crime
gibbet + someone
用法筆記
This sense overlaps with the verb 'to hang' but carries the specific legal and ritual weight of execution by gibbet — a more formal, historically situated punishment than 'hang'. Unlike sense 2 (DISPLAY THE DEAD), this sense covers the killing itself.