From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhangmanhang‧man /ˈhæŋmən/ noun (plural hangmen /-mən/) [countable] BOSCLsomeone whose job is to kill criminals by hanging them
Examples from the Corpus
hangman• After his victim had been turned off the ladder, probably by the assistant hangman, Schlegel remained astride the cross-beam.• That's what's expected tonight at the Oxford Union, when former hangman, Syd Dernley speaks in favour of capital punishment.• And waiting for the call: The last hangman says bring back the rope.• Brunskill's thirty-eight years of executions were by now telling on him, a strain suffered eventually by most hangmen.• The huge old canvas sack on a chain looked like a real-life victim of a game of hangman.• Syd Dernley was a public hangman before the capital punishment was abolished in nineteen sixty-five.• The hangman then twisted the ladder away, turning off the victim.