Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who has escaped the gallows though deserving hanging; a villain: used in objurgation.

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

  • noun colloq. One who has narrowly escaped the gallows for his crimes.

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

  • noun colloquial, dated A criminal who has narrowly escaped being hanged.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

scape +‎ gallows

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Examples

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  • "One who deserves and has narrowly escaped the gallows, a slip-gibbet, one for whom the gallows is said to groan."

    - Francis Grose, 'The Vulgar Tongue.'

    September 12, 2008