Definition of Gallows

gallows (noun) - an instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from which a condemned person is executed by hanging

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How can gallows be used in a sentence?

  1. This is the kind of gallows we all thrill to stand around.

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  2. The Germans call it gallows-humour; the French, 1'humour noir.

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  3. The gallows was a crude wooden structure, just three posts with crossbeams.

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  4. I do not believe that the gallows is the last step between earth and heaven.

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  5. The ultimate extension of this premise, of course, is so-called gallows humor.

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  6. It must be remembered that in those days the gallows was a very popular institution.

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  7. I know, he preferred to be shot, but I can tell you the gallows is a very, very good one.

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  8. Right before he is hung, we understand, that waiting for him in the gallows is a red card.

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  9. But his "cold cuts" comment sounds like the kind of gallows humour heard in almost every crisis situation.

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  10. It's a kind of gallows humor that might seem a bit controversial when talking about the sensitive topic of AIDS.

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  11. A gallows is the proper reward for the crime thou hast committed, but I am merciful, and readily listen to reason.

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  12. The difference between the two is illustrated by the institution of the gallows, which is human, but not humanitarian.

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  13. No one should be surprised if the first group frog-marched to the gallows is the editorial staff of the New York Times.

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  14. That old joke was the kind of gallows humor we came to appreciate among the crowd of kids I knew on the Polio Ward at the hospital.

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  15. The ordinary gallows is comparatively humane; the victim falls through a trap and drops far enough to break his neck and he dies instantly.

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  16. The Great Recession has been unkind, and "Dilbert" no longer offered the right kind of gallows humor that comes with a dead-end cubicle job.

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  17. He looked lower again, and behind the gallows was a column of heavy smoke going up, and in the midst of the smoke a cauldron hung on a tripod.

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  18. Hadary's song and dance on the gallows is the one place where everything comes together in a bloodcurdling irony beyond politics and pathology.

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  19. At the back were the stockyards and the killing-pen, where a contrivance for raising dead cattle -- called a gallows -- waved its arms to the sky.

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  20. Goldstone presided in South Africa during the 1980s and 1990s, and wrote in one of his rulings that the gallows are the only deterrent for killers.

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  21. The judge in the appellate chamber confirming as well to CNN that within the docket that is waiting for Saddam Hussein at the gallows is a red card.

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  22. This was followed by his breezy 60 Minutes appearance which was punctuated with what he termed "gallows" laughter at strange and unpredictable points.

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  23. We understand that waiting for Saddam at the gallows is a red card that has been signed by Iraq's justice minister, condemning Saddam Hussein to death.

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  24. Force and the gallows was the only thing that deterred 18th century pirates, and even then they really had to be hunted down to put an end to the threat.

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  25. For (thinks I) "gallows'-rogue" am I in very truth an outcast from my kind, a creature shamed by pillory and lash, a poor wretch for spiteful Fortune's buffets.

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  26. The birch and if neccessary the gallows are the way to deal with people that behave like total shits on an ongoing basis. on August 16, 2006 at 11: 43 am | Reply Laura

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  27. We understand that waiting for Saddam at the gallows will be a red card, this one signed by the current minister of justice, condemning Saddam Hussein himself to death.

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  28. And these expeditions keeping him continually bare, robbing and junketting, desire of pleasure and fear of the gallows were the whole round of both his actions and his thoughts.

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  29. Elliot's full-length feature is a masterpiece of animation that includes everything from the snarkiest kind of gallows humor to the funniest death of a mime ever caught onscreen.

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  30. But now I am a man of property, and my eyes are open and my conscience revolts against theft, and the gallows is the finest institution going, and next to that comes a jolly good prison.

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  31. "Whether it was the voice and countenance of Mr. Tyson, or the terror of the word gallows, that affected the miscreant, his arm suddenly fell, and he stood as if struck dumb with amazement.

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  32. I answer, No; no more than to warn them against poisons, pits, and precipices is likely to endanger their lives; or to tell them by what ill courses men come to the gallows is the ready way to bring them thither.

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  33. He rode to the august structure of retributive Themis, as the French call a gallows, in all the pride and pomp of shrievalty, and with a splendid retinue of well-equipped knaves and varlets, as our ancestors called honest serving-men.

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  34. They conducted me sometimes high above ground and sometimes dragging me along, but as silently as possible, in the direction of the gallows, which is always kept standing upon the Common, or as it is called "the pines," or "piny old field."

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  35. There's definitely a 'letting things out' in certain scenes and oddly the kind of gallows humor which is also part of the process is very necessary; but we want this film to be a tool for everyone in order to deal with loss to live their lives.

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  36. In addition to the laugh and I do agree with Icanhasyarn that this one looks like a gallows, which is a particularly horrific motif for a birthday cake, I also have the comfort of knowing my birthday cake - since I will be making it myself - will look ever so much more festive and happ.

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  37. Fathom would deter his reader from similar courses by a fear of similar punishment, when Defoe urged the moral usefulness of "Moll Flanders" and "Roxana," the two novelists simply expressed the general feeling that the sight of a malefactor hanging on the gallows was the most effective recommendation to virtue.

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  38. Its chiefs wore white waistcoats, gave red cloaks and broken meat to old women, and would have lopped off three hundred years from Old England's life, by pushing her back to the early days of Henry VIII., when the religious houses flourished, and when the gallows was a perennial plant, bearing fruit that was _not_ for the healing of the nations.

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  39. What used to be soft has calcified under the fifteen-year steady drip of daily disaster; what was once overly sincere naivete has given way to the kind of gallows humor that can turn even the most heartbreaking tragedy into a ghastly joke -- one which always ends with a smirk and the cynical admission that only hell can await such crass insensitivity.

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  40. Probably, even in our own time, an artist might find his imagination considerably stimulated and his work powerfully improved if he knew that anything short of his best would bring him to the gallows, with or without trial by jury; but in the twelfth century the gallows was a trifle; the Queen hardly considered it a punishment for an offence to her dignity.

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Tips for Using gallows in a Sentence

You may have an easier time writing sentences with gallows if you know what words are likely to come before or after it, or simply what words are often found in the same sentence.

Frequent Predecessors

Words that often come before gallows in sentences. For example: "the gallows" or "a gallows"

  • the
  • a
  • of
  • and
  • on
  • or
  • his
  • to
  • with
  • at

Frequent Successors

Words that often come after gallows in sentences. For example: "gallows ." or "gallows and"

  • .
  • and
  • in
  • for
  • humor
  • was
  • hill
  • at
  • on
  • with

Associated Words

Words that aren't necessarily predecessors or successors, but are often found in the same sentence.

  • noose
  • trapdoor
  • newgate
  • hangman
  • hanged
  • goto
  • executioner
  • scaffold
  • mordecai
  • reigns

Alternate Definitions

  • gallows (noun) - a similar contrivance for suspending objects
  • gallows (noun) - in <em>coal-mining</em>, a set of timbers consisting of two upright pieces or props and a bar or crown-tree laid across their tops so as to support the roof in a level or in any other excavation
  • gallows (noun) - in <em>printing</em>, a low trestle attached to old forms of hand printing-presses, to sustain the tympan
  • gallows (noun) - a central core formed of several cornstalks interlaced diagonally (while uncut) to serve as a stool or support for cut maize which is placed about it in forming a shock
  • gallows (noun) - <em>plural</em> a pair of braces for supporting the trousers. also <internalxref urlencoded="galluses">galluses</internalxref>
  • gallows (noun) - a frame from which is suspended the rope with which criminals are executed by hanging, usually consisting of two upright posts and a crossbeam on the top; also, a like frame for suspending anything
  • gallows (noun) - the rest for the tympan when raised
  • gallows (noun) - a pair of suspenders or braces
  • gallows (noun) - gallows bitts
A sentence using gallows