pillory
/ˈpɪləɹi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.12 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A framework on a post, with holes for the hands and head, used as a means of punishment and humiliation.
Example Sentences
- "Maires and Maceris that meanes be betwene / The Kynge and the comon to kepe the lawes / To pũnyſhen on pyleries and pynning ſtoles / Bruſterrs and bakeſters, bochers and cokes / For theſe ar mẽ on this mold þᵉ moſt harme worketh / To the pore people that percel mele byghe[...]"
- "Cros·! þou dost no trouþe ; / On a pillori· my fruit to pinne, / He haþ no spot· of Adam sinne ; / Flesch· and veines· nou fleo a-twinne, / Wherfore I· rede of routhe·:"
- "[…]I haue stood on the Pillorie for Geese he hath kil'd, […]"
- "The other replied, That for ought they could ſee, the men were quiet, and ſober, and intended no body any harm ; and that there were many that Traded in their fair, that were more worthy to be put into the Cage, yea, and the Pillory too, then were the men that they had abuſed."
- "To ensure good behavior, the slaveholder relies on the whip; […] to imbrute and destroy his manhood, he relies on the whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, the pillory, the bowie-knife, the pistol, and the blood-hound."
- "It was famous, too, for the pillory, a wise old institution, that inflicted a punishment of which no one could foresee the extent; also, for the whipping-post, another dear old institution, very humanising and softening to behold in action; […]."
Etymology
From Middle English pilory, pillorie, from Old French pilori, pellori, which is either from Old Occitan espilori or Latin pīla (“pillar”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: pilory, pilori, espilori, pīla