All 4 Uses of
guillotine
in
The Idiot
- They put a man inside a frame and a sort of broad knife falls by machinery—they call the thing a guillotine-it falls with fearful force and weight-the head springs off so quickly that you can't wink your eye in between.†
Chpt 1.2 *
- "Do you know, though," cried the prince warmly, "you made that remark now, and everyone says the same thing, and the machine is designed with the purpose of avoiding pain, this guillotine I mean; but a thought came into my head then: what if it be a bad plan after all?†
Chpt 1.2
- I thought of asking you to draw the face of a criminal, one minute before the fall of the guillotine, while the wretched man is still standing on the scaffold, preparatory to placing his neck on the block.†
Chpt 1.5
- After all this honour and glory, after having been almost a Queen, she was guillotined by that butcher, Samson.†
Chpt 2.2
Definition:
-
(guillotine) a device used to behead people who are to be executed by the state (most associated with the French Revolution); or executing someone in such a manner