Definition of "gallows" in English

noun

1. A wooden framework on which persons are executed by hanging.

   • Near-synonym: gibbet

2. (colloquial, obsolete) A wretch who deserves to be hanged.

3. (printing, obsolete) The rest for the tympan when raised.

4. (colloquial, obsolete) Suspenders; braces.

5. Any contrivance with posts and crossbeam for suspending objects.

   • Lit by the moonlight through the window, he can see a FIGURE in the hospital bed alone in the room, and under a transparent oxygen tent. […] Tubes hang from a steel gallows beside the bed, and run to his nose and mouth.

6. The main frame of a beam engine.

adverb

1. (colloquial, archaic) Utterly; very.

verb

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of gallow