Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or pertaining to a fork-shaped gibbet; resembling a gallows.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective rare Of or pertaining to the gallows, or to execution.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Pertaining to the
gallows orhanging .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Latin patibulum + -ary.
Support
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Examples
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Further on I shall attempt -- I write the word with a patibulary gesture -- in a sort of a Chopin variorum, to analyze the salient aspects, technical and aesthetic, of his music.
Chopin : the Man and His Music James Huneker 1890
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Nature for such a man, and for Nations that follow such, has her patibulary forks, and prisons of death everlasting: -- dost thou doubt it?
Latter-Day Pamphlets Thomas Carlyle 1838
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For, merely setting husband-dead in place of one of this patibulary race,
Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine — Complete Jean de La Fontaine 1658
pavonine commented on the word patibulary
Of or pertaining to the gallows, or to execution
From WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 590 Saturday 7 June 2008
Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK
http://www.worldwidewords.org
June 10, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word patibulary
"And then, when he had finished his supper, he would get out his collection of patibulary treasures, and over a bowl of negus finger lovingly the various bits of gallows rope, the blood-stained glove of a murdered strumpet, the piece of amber worn as a charm by a notorious brigand chief, and gloat over the stealthy steps of his pet tiger, the Law."
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees, p 153 of the Cold Spring Press paperback
December 6, 2016