executioner
(ɛksɪˈkjuːʃənə(r))
Also 6 exequutioner.
[f. execution n. + -er1.]
1. One who executes or carries into effect (a command, design, instructions, law, justice, etc.); a perpetrator (of an evil deed). Rare in mod. use.
| 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iii. i. 37 To haue a souldier to be very perfect, and a good executioner indeede. 1619 Hales Golden Rem. (1688) 455 With them God the Father alone is the Author of our Election, and Christ only the Executioner. 1673 Baxter Let. in Answ. Dodwell 83 The People are Executioners of Excommunications while they withdraw from the Excommunicate. 1683 Apol. Prot. France ii. 27 The soldiers are employed as Executioners of these Outrages. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. xvi. 277 To take upon me to be..an executioner of his [God's] justice. 1827 Scott Napoleon Introd., The people had a right..to act as the executioners of their own will. 1879 Baring Gould Germany II. 245 German right..trusted to the moral sense as its executioner. |
† b. One who performs the duties of a place or office. Obs. rare.
| 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1491/2 The verie situation of the place ministreth incouragement to the executioners. a 1626 Bacon (J.), The executioners of this office..cannot be guilty of oppression. |
c. transf. said of things. rare.
| 1647 Crashaw Poems, Sospetto d' Herode xli, All along The walls..Are tooles of Wrath, anvills of torments hung; Fell executioners of foul intents. 1755 in Johnson; whence 1818 in Todd; and in mod. Dicts. |
2. gen. One who carries a sentence or judgement into effect: a punisher.
| 1578 Timme Calvin on Gen. 222 Howsoever Magistrates do wink, God raiseth up elsewhere exequutioners which repay to bloodshedders their reward. 1678 tr. L. de Gaya's Art War i. 34 The Provost Mareschal..hath a Troop of Officers on Horseback, with an Executioner to punish those that offend against the Orders of the..General. a 1703 Burkitt On N.T. Matt. xxvii. 5 Conscience is a powerful, though invisible executioner. 1798 Malthus Popul. iv. vii, When nature will govern and punish for us, it is a very miserable ambition to wish to..draw upon ourselves the odium of executioner. |
3. The official who carries out a sentence of death; a headsman, hangman, etc.
| 1561 Brende Q. Curtius viii. 153 He being a kynge had vsed the detestable office of an execucyoner. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. ii. 222 Call your executioner, and off with Barnardines head. 1698 Ludlow Mem. I. 245 The King..kneeled down at the block, and the executioner performed his office. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 320 The executioners..were fatigued. 1859 L. Oliphant China & Japan II. ix. 194 Criminals who have committed crimes worthy of death, forestall the public executioner. |
4. transf. and fig. a. One who puts another to death. b. One who or that which tortures like an executioner or hangman.
| 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. ii. 186 Though I wish thy death, I will not be thy Executioner. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iii. iv, A poysoned worme..gnawing the very heart, a perpetuall executioner. 1658–9 Burton's Diary (1828) IV. 48 It is likely they will not be their own executioners. 1755 in Johnson. 1840 Hood Up the Rhine 322 What is war..but a great wholesale executioner. |
Hence exeˈcutioneress, a female executioner.
| 1656 S. Holland Zara (1719) 92 Your name should be hang'd, drawn, and quartered by the common Executioneress Fame. 1864 R. F. Burton Dahome II. 40 The Mingan had a billhook in her left hand, as executioneress of the inside. |