Category:Gibbet

Gib"bet, n. Etym: [OE. gibet, F. gibet, in OF. also club, fr. LL. gibetum;; cf. OF. gibe sort of sickle or hook, It. giubbetto gibbet, and giubbetta, dim. of giubba mane, also, an under waistcoat, doublet, Prov. It. gibba (cf. Jupon); so that it perhaps originally signified a halter, a rope round the neck of malefactors; or it is, perhaps, derived fr. L. gibbus hunched, humped, E. gibbous; or cf. E. jib a sail.]

1. A kind of gallows; an upright post with an arm projecting from the top, on which, formerly, malefactors were hanged in chains, and their bodies allowed to remain asa warning.

2. The projecting arm of a crane, from which the load is suspended; the jib.

gibbet Gib"bet, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gibbeted; p. pr. & vb. n. Gibbeting.]

1. To hang and expose on a gibbet.

2. To expose to infamy; to blacken. I'll gibbet up his name. Oldham.