Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A wooden framework on a post, with holes for the head and hands, in which offenders were formerly locked to be exposed to public scorn as punishment.
- v. To expose to ridicule and abuse.
- v. To put in a pillory as punishment.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A frame of wood erected on a post or pole, with movable boards resembling those in the stocks, and holes through which were put the head and hands of an offender, who was thus exposed to public derision. In Great Britain it was a common punishment appointed for forestallers, users of deceitful weights, common scolds, political offenders, those guilty of perjury, forgery, libel, seditious writings, etc. It was abolished in 1837.
- To punish by exposure in the pillory.
- Hence Figuratively, to expose to ridicule, contempt, abuse, and the like.
Wiktionary
- n. A framework on a post, with holes for the hands and head, used as a means of punishment and humiliation.
- v. To put in a pillory.
- v. To subject to humiliation, scorn, ridicule or abuse.
- v. To criticize harshly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A frame of adjustable boards erected on a post, and having holes through which the head and hands of an offender were thrust so as to be exposed in front of it.
- v. To set in, or punish with, the pillory.
- v. Figuratively, to expose to public scorn.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a wooden instrument of punishment on a post with holes for the wrists and neck; offenders were locked in and so exposed to public scorn
- v. punish by putting in a pillory
- v. expose to ridicule or public scorn
- v. criticize harshly or violently
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French pilori, probably from Latin pīla, pillar.
Examples
“I do not like to stand on your what you call pillory --- it is very bad way to take de air, I think; and I do not like your prisons no more, where one cannot take de air at all. '”
“Den, gentlemens, I shall take my leave of you, dat is all; I do not like to stand on your what you call pillory -- it is very bad way to take de air, I think; and I do not like your prisons no more, where one cannot take de air at all.”
““Den, gentlemens, I shall take my leave of you, dat is all; I do not like to stand on your what you call pillory — it is very bad way to take de air, I think; and I do not like your prisons no more, where one cannot take de air at all.””
“There is a piece of business to be transacted between writer and reader before any further dealings are possible, and to be reminded in the middle of this private interview that Defoe sold stockings, had brown hair, and was stood in the pillory is a distraction and a worry.”
“Exposure in the pillory was a favourite prescription, a kind of judicial panacea, to which all sorts of the morally infirm were introduced in turn.”
“For a man in the pillory was a fitting object for laughter and rude jests.”
“Be that as it might, the scaffold of the pillory was a point of view that revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track along which she had been treading, since her happy infancy.”
“The furious controversies of that age, in which the stake, the prison, and the pillory were the popular theological arguments, produced a characteristic effect on his sympathies.”
“In days when the pillory was the punishment for common libel, it cannot be thought much that heresy and infidelity should be punished by public opprobrium.”
“(Perhaps the "pillory" was already booked-up solid.) dylan”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pillory’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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RitaJKing's list
transparency
shimmer, fantastical, sansula, rapture, melancholy, obviated, parenthetically, apoplexy, indelible, pillory, demagogues, quark and 41 more...
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Censure (v.)
Someone must have had an inferiority complex.
vituperate, vilify, trounce, traduce, slander, scold, revile, reprove, reprimand, reprehend, remonstrate, rebuke and 37 more...
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josholalia's list
ineluctable, glossolalia, agog, echolalia, minaret, pillory, usury, gimlet, carioca, sniveling, concave, convex and 15 more...
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various figurative
go, rise, look, incense, lamp, upper, lap, pillory, rock, post
jwjarvis Dr. Summers was pilloried for even suggesting the idea, and the critics took up his challenge to refute the hypothesis. Jun 9, 2010
taciturnyetprolix Let's legalize the use of the pillory then start to sell rotten tomatoes. It's a sure fire money maker. Dec 3, 2008
uselessness Stocks? Just sayin'... :-) Aug 28, 2007
oroboros Wow! I'm curious, what did you think those things you see in movies are called...you know, where people were locked up with their head and hands exposed to the public (and which were used by same for target practice!)? Or had you never seen such a movie scene? Aug 28, 2007
ecrivaine33 I had never heard this word until today, 28 Aug 2007, in a headline about the Greek gov't. being pilloried due to the rampant fires raging across the region in Greece. Aug 28, 2007