gallows

• Estrutura de madeira com um poste e uma trave horizontal, usada para executar pessoas por enforcamento. Por extensão, qualquer instrumento ou local de execução capital.

A wooden framework, typically consisting of an upright post with a projecting beam, used for execution by hanging.

plural irregular

1. A wooden structure for hanging condemned criminals.B2formal

   A device consisting of one or more upright timbers and a horizontal beam, equipped with a rope, used from antiquity until modern times as a means of capital punishment; often constructed as a permanent fixture or temporary scaffold.

   Estrutura de madeira para execução de condenados por enforcamento.

   • The convicted highwayman was led to the gallows at dawn.
   • A sombre crowd gathered around the wooden frame to witness the execution.
   • Public executions at the gallows were abolished in many countries in the 19th century.
   • The gnarled upright timber stood as a grim warning on the hilltop.
   • The authorities erected a temporary hanging platform in the town square.

   Sinônimosgallows-treegibbetscaffold

2. Execution by hanging; the death penalty carried out on such a structure.B2formal

   The punishment of death suspended by the neck, metaphorically represented by the apparatus itself; frequently used in literature and law to denote the fate awaiting a condemned individual.

   Pena de morte por enforcamento; metonimicamente, a forca.

   • The judge sentenced the traitor to the gallows.
   • To save his life, the captive agreed to testify against his former accomplices.
   • The novel ends with the villain meeting his fate on the scaffold.
   • Many members of the rebellion faced the gallows after the uprising was crushed.
   • He narrowly escaped the death penalty when new evidence proved his innocence.

   Sinônimosgibbethalterhangingnooseropescaffold