Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A device consisting of a heavy blade held aloft between upright guides and dropped to behead a person condemned to die.
  • noun An instrument, such as a paper cutter, similar in action to a guillotine.
  • transitive verb To behead with a guillotine.
  • transitive verb To cut with a guillotine or sharp blade.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A machine for breaking iron by means of a falling weight.
  • To behead by the guillotine.
  • noun A machine used in France for beheading condemned persons by the action of a heavily weighted, oblique-edged knife falling between two grooved posts upon the neck of the victim, whose head protrudes through a circular hole in a divided plank.
  • noun One of several machines similar in principle to the above, much used for cutting paper, straw, etc. Also called guillotine cutter.
  • noun In surgery, an instrument for cutting the tonsils.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To behead with the guillotine.
  • noun A machine for beheading a person by one stroke of a heavy ax or blade, which slides in vertical guides, is raised by a cord, and let fall upon the neck of the victim.
  • noun Any machine or instrument for cutting or shearing, resembling in its action a guillotine.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation, consisting of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy diagonal-edged blade.
  • noun A device used for cutting stacks of paper to straight edges, usually by means of a hinged blade attached to a flat platform.
  • noun A cloture; a motion that debate be ended and a vote taken.
  • verb transitive To execute, cut or cut short (a person, a stack of paper or a debate) by use of a guillotine.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun closure imposed on the debate of specific sections of a bill
  • noun instrument of execution that consists of a weighted blade between two vertical poles; used for beheading people
  • verb kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, after Joseph Ignace Guillotin, (1738–1814), French physician.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French guillotine, after Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who proposed its use for capital punishment.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Reminds me of gelatin.

    February 5, 2010