headsman
/hˈɛdzmən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.54 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An executioner whose method of dispatching the condemned is decapitation.
noun
A labourer in a colliery who transports the coal from the workings to the horseway, and who is oftentimes assisted by a younger worker called a foal.
noun
One in command of a whaling vessel.
Example Sentences
- "And of those base-minded jesters or buffons, some have beene seene, that even at the point of death would never leave their jesting and scoffing. He whom the heads-man threw off from the Gallowes cried out, ‘Row the Gally,’ which was his ordinarie by-word."
- "And made him Headsman, for we said, / "Who's next to be decapited / Cannot cut off another's head / Until he's cut his own off[…]""