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guillotine |
4 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Guillotine \Guil"lo*tine`\ (g[i^]l"l[-o]*t[=e]n`), n. [F., from Guillotin, a French physician, who proposed, in the Constituent Assembly of 1789, to abolish decapitation with the ax or sword. The instrument was invented by Dr Antoine Louis, and was called at first {Louison} or {Louisette}. Similar machines, however, were known earlier.] 1. A machine for beheading a person by one stroke of a heavy ax or blade, which slides in vertical guides, is raised by a cord, and let fall upon the neck of the victim. 2. Any machine or instrument for cutting or shearing, resembling in its action a guillotine. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Guillotine \Guil"lo*tine`\ (g[i^]l`l[-o]*t[=e]n"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Guillotined}; p. pr & vb n. {Guillotining}.] [Cf. F. guillotiner.] To behead with the guillotine. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: guillotine n 1: closure imposed on the debate of specific sections of a bill [syn: {closure by compartment}] 2: consists of a weighted blade between two vertical poles; used for beheading people v : kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine; "The French guillotined many Vietnamese while they occupied the country" From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: GUILLOTINE, n. A machine which makes a Frenchman shrug his shoulders with good reason. In his great work on _Divergent Lines of Racial Evolution_, the learned Professor Brayfugle argues from the prevalence of this gesture -- the shrug -- among Frenchmen, that they are descended from turtles and it is simply a survival of the habit of retracing the head inside the shell. It is with reluctance that I differ with so eminent an authority, but in my judgment (as more elaborately set forth and enforced in my work entitled _Hereditary Emotions_ -- lib. II c. XI) the shrug is a poor foundation upon which to build so important a theory, for previously to the Revolution the gesture was unknown. I have not a doubt that it is directly referable to the terror inspired by the guillotine during the period of that instrument's activity.
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