Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Gibbet

Gib′bet

,
Noun.
[OE.
gibet
, F.
gibet
, in OF. also club, fr. LL.
gibetum
;; cf. OF.
gibe
sort of sickle or hook, It.
giubbetto
gibbet, and
giubbetta
, dim. of
giubba
mane, also, an under waistcoat, doublet, Prov. It.
gibba
(cf.
Jupon
); so that it perhaps originally signified a halter, a rope round the neck of malefactors; or it is, perhaps, derived fr. L.
gibbus
hunched, humped, E.
gibbous
; or cf. E.
jib
a sail.]
1.
A kind of gallows; an upright post with an arm projecting from the top, on which, formerly, malefactors were hanged in chains, and their bodies allowed to remain as a warning.
2.
The projecting arm of a crane, from which the load is suspended; the jib.

Gib′bet

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Gibbeted
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Gibbeting
.]
1.
To hang and expose on a gibbet.
2.
To expose to infamy; to blacken.
I’ll
gibbet
up his name.
Oldham.

Webster 1828 Edition

Gibbet

GIB'BET

,
Noun.
A gallows; a post or machine in form of a gallows, on which notorious malefactors are hanged in chains, and on which their bodies are suffered to remain, as spectacles in terrorem.
1.
Any traverse beam.

GIB'BET

,
Verb.
T.
To hang and expose on a gibbet or gallows.
1.
To hang or expose on anything going travers, as the beam of a gibbet.

Similar Results