▪ I. guillotine, n.
(ˈgɪlətiːn, gɪləˈtiːn)
[a. F. guillotine, f. Guillotin, the name of a physician at whose suggestion the instrument was employed in 1789.]
1. An instrument used in France (esp. during the Revolution) for beheading, consisting of a heavy knife blade sliding between grooved posts. Also, execution by this instrument.
| 1793 Ann. Reg. 278 At half past 12 the guillotine severed her head from her body. 1819 Byron Juan i. cxxix, One makes new noses, one a guillotine. 1848 W. K. Kelly tr. Le Blanc's Hist. Ten Y. II. 417 Alibaud was condemned to the guillotine. 1877 E. B. Hamley Voltaire xxvi. 202 The violent overturning of the old monarchy, the proscriptions, the massacres, the guillotine—these would have received no countenance from him. |
| transf. and fig. 1800 J. Hurdis Fav. Village 137 The monarch daffodil uprears his head, Nor dreads the guillotine of the keen gale. 1802 Let. 14 May in Papers Twining Fam. (1887) Ser. ii. 243 A neat silver guillotine, to cut off the heads of asparagus. 1815 J. Adams Wks. (1856) X. 122 Down would fall the guillotine of a negative upon the neck of poor Muhlenberg. 1884 Graphic 1 Nov. 446/2 Cayenne is so malarious that transportation thither used to be styled ‘the dry guillotine’. |
2. The name of various instruments acting in a similar manner:
a. Surg., an instrument for excising the tonsil or uvula and for other surgical operations.
b. (See
quots.)
c. A machine for cutting the edges of books, paper, straw, etc.
| a. 1866 J. M. Sims Notes Uterine Surg. iii. 224 But I think I have at last hit upon something better [than the curved scissors] which I would term the uterine guillotine. 1880 M. Mackenzie Dis. Throat & Nose I. 321 Abscission may be performed by means of knives, scissors, guillotines, or écraseurs. 1886 in Syd. Soc. Lex. |
| b. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Guillotine, a machine for breaking iron with a falling weight. 1892 Labour Commission Gloss., Guillotines, machines used in the iron and steel industry for cutting square blocks of steel to a certain length. |
| c. 1883 Scotsman 9 May 11/7 Valuable Printing Plant..Two Guillotines. 1896 Advt., Printers.—Wanted, young man as Machine Man... One with knowledge of guillotine preferred. |
3. a. U.S. (See
quot. 1883.)
b. A method of shortening the discussion on a bill in parliament, by fixing a day when the Committee stage must close.
| 1850 N. Hawthorne Scarlet Letter 56 Keeping up the metaphor of the political guillotine, [etc.]. 1883 Encycl. Amer. I. 200/1 The axe, or rather the guillotine, is made to represent the dismissal of Government officials upon the coming in of a new President, or in case of some grave complication, and the victims are said to be beheaded. 1893 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 20 Mar. 1/2 The Post-Office Guillotine Working Rapidly. 1893 Scotsman 28 June 6 Let us suppose that the Government have resolved to adopt the guillotine. 1893 Westm. Gaz. 30 June 2/2 The Coercion Bill (1887) was allowed 15 days in Committee before the application of the guillotine. |
4. a. attrib., as
guillotine-massacre,
guillotine-process; (sense 3 b)
guillotine closure,
guillotine motion,
guillotine resolution,
guillotine time;
guillotine-cravat, a fashion of cravat current during the French revolution;
guillotine-cutter = 2 c;
guillotine-instrument Surg. = 2 a;
guillotine-window [F.
fenêtre à guillotine], an ordinary sash window, jocularly so called from the fact that the sashes slide in grooves.
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 14 May 2/2 Let it be understood..that the *guillotine closure will not be used, however prolonged the sittings may be. 1927 Daily Express 10 May 2/7 To introduce the guillotine or kangaroo method of closure. |
| 1880 V. Lee Stud. Italy iii. 225 Italy had become cosmopolitan and eclectic, borrowing top boots, *guillotine cravats, and Grecian sandals. |
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Supp., *Guillotine instrument. |
| 1796 Bp. Watson Apol. Bible i. (1799) 6, I cannot, with you, attribute the *guillotine-massacres to that cause. |
| 1946 Ann. Reg. 1945 94 The *guillotine motion in Standing Committee should take the form of naming the date by which the Bill should be reported. 1958 Ann. Reg. 1957 7 A ‘guillotine’ motion for its [sc. the Bill's] acceleration was moved and carried. |
| 1893 Daily News 10 June 3/8 There might be an objection to applying the *guillotine process to the Bill as a whole. |
| 1927 Daily Tel. 10 May 12/3 The Government will bring in a ‘*guillotine’ resolution. |
| 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 3/4 (heading) *Guillotine time only days away as broadcasting debate goes on. |
| 1898 Daily News 28 Feb. 4/7 The French laugh at our ‘*guillotine windows’, and greatly prefer their own, which open inwards. |
b. guillotine shears, a form of shearing machine having a stationary lower blade and used chiefly for cutting metal sheet and strip.
| 1884 W. H. Greenwood Steel & Iron xvi. 348 A form of powerful guillotine shears. 1967 Times Rev. Industry Feb. 96/2 The Swedish company's range of hydraulic press brakes and guillotine shears. |
Hence
guillotinism, execution by means of the guillotine;
guillotinist, one who favours execution by the guillotine.
| 1793 Poetry in Ann. Reg. 404 Lo! I who erst..Disclos'd the secrets of the Royal House, And sang the Guillotinism of—a louse! 1796 Burke Regic. Peace iv. Wks. IX. 11 The humane guillotinists of Bourdeaux. |
▪ II. guillotine, v. (
ˈgɪlətiːn,
gɪləˈtiːn)
[ad. F. guillotine-r, f. guillotine guillotine n.] 1. trans. To behead by the guillotine.
| 1794 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 10 May (1799) 14/2 Guillotined at Paris, madame Elizabeth, sister of the late king of France. 1810 Q. Rev. Nov. 464 Our late philosophers (for we believe they are most of them guillotined). 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. vii. ii, They have suffered much: their friends guillotined; their pleasures..ruthlessly repressed. 1880 Ouida Moths I. 146 You could fancy her going to be guillotined in old lace like Marie-Antoinette. |
| transf. and fig. 1804 Fessenden Democr. (1806) I. 121 And guillotine the reputation Of every good man in the nation. 1832 G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 39 The view..includes some hills, with vineyards guillotined after the French manner. 1887 Pall Mall G. 3 Sept. 3/1 Mr. Calmour has a short and easy way with dissyllables which refuse to fit into his verse. He simply guillotines them, thus: ‘And redbreasts fearless 'proach the door’. |
2. In various applied senses.
a. To cut (the edges of a book) with a guillotine.
b. To cut short discussion upon (a bill, a clause).
| 1893 Times 1 June 9/5 To fix a date for guillotining each clause in succession. 1896 Daily News 23 Mar. 8/6 Only the cheaper books are sewn by machinery..the better volumes being sewn with silk by hand. Then the edges are guillotined. |
Hence
guillotined ppl. a. (also absol.);
ˌguillotiˈneer,
guillotiner, one who guillotines;
guilloˈtinement [so in
Fr.], execution by the guillotine.
| 1796 Times 1 Aug. in J. Ashton Old Times (1885) 322 The widows of twenty guillotined poor souls. 1832 Blackw. Mag. XXXII. 275 They..would rather be the guillotined than the guillotiners. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xl, The vehicle was not exactly a gig..nor a guillotined cabriolet. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. vii. ii, Bewildered by long terror, perturbations and guillotinement. 1890 Longm. Mag. Aug. 359 These were would-be guillotiners, now to be guillotined in their turn! 1897 Expositor's Grk. Test. I. 164/1 Even persecutors and guillotineers get weary of their savage work. |