(n. sing.) A frame from which is suspended the rope with which criminals are executed by hanging, usually consisting of two upright posts and a crossbeam on the top; also, a like frame for suspending anything.
(n. sing.) A wretch who deserves the gallows.
(n. sing.) The rest for the tympan when raised.
(n. sing.) A pair of suspenders or braces.
Example Sentences:
(1) First was the fact that from the age of 27 to his current age of 61, Valle had sat on death row: a total of 33 years under the shadow of the gallows.
(2) It not only prevents you from stealing things out of frustration, but might even save you from the gallows one day.
(3) Jordison, who was moved to "return to the scene of the crime" with a recent trip to Morecambe, says that while the gallows humour that characterised the first book and its follow-up is unlikely to disappear, the latest volume will probably be rather darker.
(4) The previous week, campaigners carried a mock gallows with a noose labelled for Merkel.
(5) "My friend Billy's at the match and he's said the atmosphere in Belo is the best of all of the cities he's been to and he's loved the build up and the gallows humour.
(6) No amount of choreographed fireworks or musical pageantry can mask that this is little more than a public hanging, and there is no honour in summoning the world to our gallows.
(7) Along the path runs a silhouetted Pip, the last vestiges of sunlight again twinkling off the water as he passes two unoccupied gallows, a sorry bunch of dry flowers in one hand, clouds smeared across the sky like oil paint.
(8) Ministers fearing the worst will be indulging in gallows humour with their private offices; those in a more optimistic frame of mind might be turning their thoughts to a bright tie to be photographed in when they complete their hoped-for happy waltz out of No 10. Who is safe?
(9) After the PKK leader’s capture in 1999, Öcalan was sentenced to life imprisonment on the island of Imrali, in the Sea of Marmara, saved from the gallows only by pressure from the European Union.
(10) In the footage, only distant people, moving vehicles and what appears to be a gallows covered in black cloth are visible.
(11) I sometimes think these people would bring back the rack, the whip and the gallows if "vital for national security".
(12) The video appeared to show the same screened gallows structure seen in still photographs taken during its construction.
(13) The first Mexican wave began after 15 minutes, which is always a sign that there is not much happening on the pitch, and England’s supporters could be heard going through the now-familiar repertoire of gallows-humour chants.
(14) In fact they're not – they are journalists, pollsters, aides and MPs, waiting their turn at makeshift steps which could be leading up to a gallows.
(15) Priebus, who has been noted for his gallows humor, is not known as a “go-with-the-flow” type.
(16) It would be funnier if they showed him decked out in full 70s glam gear throughout, being led to the gallows in a big spangly costume with shoulder pads so huge they get stuck in the hole as he plunges through.
(17) That’s where I’ll be.” It is hard not to salute the head coach’s gallows humour, and his determination to ensure England take their leave with at least a modicum of grace and self-respect.
(18) He sent Björk to the gallows in Dancer in the Dark , arranged a gang-rape for Nicole Kidman's heroine in Dogville , and had Gainsbourg's character take a pair of scissors to her genitals in 2009's Antichrist .
(19) With luck I will be able to stop singing forever, which would make many people happy!” Besides this gallows humour, Morrissey reiterated that he had been dismissed by his label , complaining that Harvest Records boss Steve Barnett “does not like artists to give their opinion”.
(20) Even in such a depressing situation, there is time for a bit of gallows humour.
Scrag
Definition:
(n.) Something thin, lean, or rough; a bony piece; especially, a bony neckpiece of meat; hence, humorously or in contempt, the neck.
(n.) A rawboned person.
(n.) A ragged, stunted tree or branch.
Example Sentences:
(1) The economist and active Liberal Democrat Tim Leunig has crunched the numbers for a couple with four children paying typical rent in Tolworth, an area branded "the scrag end of Kingston Borough" by London's Evening Standard.
(2) Cooking is, to me, about leisure and pleasure not haste and waste (in cooking quickly the best bits of the ingredients, such as the tops off leaks and scrag ends of meat, so good when used in stock, get binned).
(3) Even in Tolworth, described by the Evening Standard as the "scrag end of Kingston borough", a four bedroom house will give you little change from £400 a week.
(4) And even I, with my odd scrags of Russian, understand her reply. "