guillotine

nounverbattested in dialogue

United Kingdom//ˈɡɪlətiːn//
United Kingdom//ˌɡiːjəˈtiːn//
United States//ˈɡɪləˌtin//
United States//ˈɡi(j)əˌtin//

A device or machine with a cutting blade. A device used for cutting the pages of books, stacks of paper, etc., to straight edges, usually by means of a hinged or sliding blade attached to a flat platform.

noun

1
figurativeA machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation, consisting of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy diagonal-edged blade which is dropped onto the neck of the person to be executed; also, execution using this machine.
For two-and-twenty years he [Joseph-Ignace Guillotin], unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine, see nothing but guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to outlive [Julius] Cæsar’s.
2
A device or machine with a cutting blade. A device used for cutting the pages of books, stacks of paper, etc., to straight edges, usually by means of a hinged or sliding blade attached to a flat platform.
3
A device or machine with a cutting blade. An instrument with a sliding blade for cutting the tonsils, uvula, or other body parts.
4
informalA parliamentary procedure for fixing the dates when various stages of discussion of a bill must end, to ensure that the enactment of the bill proceeds expeditiously.
5
informalA legislative motion that debate be ended and a vote taken; a cloture.

Etymology

Borrowed from French guillotine, named after the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who proposed its use for capital punishment.

verb

1
figurativeTo use a guillotine (on someone or something). To execute (someone) with a guillotine.
Many counterrevolutionaries were guillotined during the French Revolution.
Besides providing online courses to their own (generally fee-paying) students, universities have felt obliged to join the MOOC revolution to avoid being guillotined by it.
2
To use a guillotine (on someone or something). To cut or trim (a body part, a stack of paper, etc.) with a guillotine.
3
informalTo end discussion (about a parliamentary bill or part of one) by invoking a guillotine procedure.
4
informalTo end (a legislative debate) by invoking cloture.
5
figurativeTo end anything abruptly.
Forgetting Solitaire, he almost dragged Bond through the door. At the last moment he remembered the girl and seized her with his other hand and pulled her in too, banging the door shut with his heel so that Mrs Stuyvesant's 'I hope you have a happy...' was guillotined before the 'stay'.

Etymology

Borrowed from French guillotiner (“to execute with a guillotine, to guillotine”), from guillotine (see etymology 1) + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs).

Forms

plural: guillotines
past tense: guillotined
past participle: guillotined
present participle: guillotining
third person singular: guillotines

guild · A group or association mainly of tradespeople made up of…Guild · A surname.Guillaume · A male given name from French.

guillotine · A device or machine with a cutting blade. A device used for cutting the pages of books, stacks of paper, etc., to straight edges, usually by means of…

guilt · Responsibility for wrongdoing.guilty · Responsible for a dishonest act.guinea · Synonym of guinea fowl.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.