gallows

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A wooden framework on which persons are executed by hanging.

   Near-synonym: gibbet.

2. 2
   noun

   A wretch who deserves to be hanged.

   Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. / You'll ne'er be friends with him: a' kill'd your sister.

3. 3
   noun

   Suspenders; braces.

   The last pair of "gallowses" made by Mr. Gratacap was an order from Mr. Brokaw, the clothier.

4. 4
   noun

   Any contrivance with posts and crossbeam for suspending objects.

   Lit by the moonlight through the window, he can see a FIGURE in the hospital bed alone in the room, and under a transparent oxygen tent. […] Tubes hang from a steel gallows beside the bed, and run to his nose and mouth.

From Middle English galwes, galewes, plural of galwe, galowe, from Old English galga, gealga, from Proto-West Germanic *galgō, from Proto-Germanic *galgô, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰalgʰ-, *ǵʰalg- (“long switch, rod, shaft, pole, perch”). The plural construction probably refers to the vertical and horizontal beams. Compare West Frisian galge, Dutch galg, German Galgen, Danish galge, Icelandic gálgi. For the pronunciation /ˈɡæləs/, compare bellows, bodice.

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