Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An executioner, especially one who executes by beheading.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A chief person; a head man.
- noun One who cuts off the heads of condemned persons; a public executioner.
- noun A laborer in a colliery who conveys the coal from the workings to the horseway.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An executioner who cuts off heads.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
executioner whose method of dispatching the condemned isdecapitation .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an executioner who beheads the condemned person
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The coward and the tyrant call the headsman at any provocation, and fall to him the same, Inaglione had written.
THE RIVER KINGS’ ROAD Liane Merciel 2010
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The executioner who is called a headsman then walks forward approaching the chair from the rear.
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'Henceforward you shall no longer be called the headsman, but the last of the judges.'
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844 Various
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A whale-boat, when going in chase, has a crew of six men: one is called the headsman, the other the boat-steerer.
Old Jack William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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The speed with which he cleared the service of Democrats earned him the title "headsman" and is indicated by the estimate that he removed one every three minutes for the first year.
The United States Since the Civil War Charles Ramsdell Lingley
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It was let down to the ground, and there came the "headsman," whose task it was to sever the head, with two or three swift strokes.
The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1923
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It was let down to the ground, and there came the "headsman," whose task it was to sever the head, with two or three swift strokes.
The Jungle 1906
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That is, instead of the sailors being divided at night into two bands, alternately on deck every four hours, there were four watches, each composed of a boat's crew, the "headsman" (always one of the mates) excepted.
Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. I (of 2) Herman Melville 1855
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The "headsman," taking the part of conductor, pushes behind.
The Mines and its Wonders William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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"Gobseck is a banker, just as the headsman is a doctor.
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau Honor�� de Balzac 1824
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