guillotine
/ˈɡɪləˌtin/
Frequency: 3.00 in modern English
Meaning
noun
A machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation, consisting of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy diagonal-edged blade which is dropped onto the neck of the person to be executed; also, execution using this machine.
noun
A parliamentary procedure for fixing the dates when various stages of discussion of a bill must end, to ensure that the enactment of the bill proceeds expeditiously.
British usage; Informal
noun
A legislative motion that debate be ended and a vote taken; a cloture.
American usage; Informal
verb
To end discussion (about a parliamentary bill or part of one) by invoking a guillotine procedure.
British usage; Informal; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "For two-and-twenty years he [Joseph-Ignace Guillotin], unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine, see nothing but guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to outlive [Julius] Cæsar’s."
- "The right hon. Gentleman is making a great stooshie about time in relation to this Bill, but was it not the case that, when the SNP [Scottish National Party] Scottish Government introduced their continuity Bill in the Scottish Parliament, they operated a ruthless guillotine to prevent proper scrutiny of it? That is the case; they ran a guillotine on that Bill, and there was a very limited amount of time allowed for debate and scrutiny, yet he complains about that happening here."
- "Many counterrevolutionaries were guillotined during the French Revolution."
- "Besides providing online courses to their own (generally fee-paying) students, universities have felt obliged to join the MOOC revolution to avoid being guillotined by it."
- "Forgetting Solitaire, he almost dragged Bond through the door. At the last moment he remembered the girl and seized her with his other hand and pulled her in too, banging the door shut with his heel so that Mrs Stuyvesant's 'I hope you have a happy...' was guillotined before the 'stay'."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɡɪləˌtin/
- British English: /ˈɡɪlətiːn/
Usage
- British usage
- Informal
- American usage
- Transitive verb