- 1絞刑架
The gallows is the wooden frame used to kill a person by hanging: a rope, a drop, a body. English says the gallows even for one structure, because the old word was a plural — probably the upright beam and the cross-beam together, like bellows, which is also plural-shaped. People also say someone was sent to the gallows, meaning sentenced to be hanged. It is a grim word from law and history. You meet it in stories, films, and museums, not in ordinary life in Taiwan. Though actually we still say gallows humour for jokes made in a dark or hopeless moment — people stretching the old killing-frame into a way of talking about grim laughter.
組成From Middle English galwes / galewes, plural of galwe, from Old English galga / gealga, from a Germanic word for a pole or long rod. The plural shape likely names the two beams. Spoken GAL-əs, like bellows.
原始詞典資料10 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
gallowsnoun詞源 1/ˈɡæləʊz/
- 1
A wooden framework on which persons are executed by hanging.
- Near-synonym: gibbet
- No, Sir, 'tis fear of Hanging. Who would not ſteal, or do Murder, every time his Fingers itch'd at it, were it not for fear of the Gallows?
- 2
obsoleteA wretch who deserves to be hanged.
- Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. / You'll ne'er be friends with him: a' kill'd your sister.
- 3
obsoletemediaprintingpublishingThe rest for the tympan when raised.
- 4
obsoleteSuspenders; braces.
- The last pair of "gallowses" made by Mr. Gratacap was an order from Mr. Brokaw, the clothier.
- 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.
gallowsadv詞源 1/ˈɡæləʊz/
- 1
archaicUtterly; very.
- They've got a gallows bad reputation, but you know what a place the beach is for talking.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
- Gallow
- gallow glyph
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。