From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgibbetgib‧bet /ˈdʒɪbɪt/ noun [countable] SCHa wooden frame on which criminals were hanged in the past with a rope around their neck SYN gallows
Examples from the Corpus
gibbet• Men advanced with beams of timber to the edge of the outermost ditch and there proceeded to erect a gibbet.• Ranulf lifted the lantern horn and his blood ran cold as he glimpsed a gibbet standing there.• As he walks, he passes a gibbet where the corpses of three crows are hung to deter their fellows.• Before the coarse brown fabric hung an austere gibbet, constructed of two weathered wooden beams.• It was also the execution ground and the decomposing bodies of four criminals twirled from the makeshift gibbet.• The twin arms of that mechanical gibbet forced his hands down into the liquid, which sizzled and steamed.• Every traveller was struck by the sight of gibbets and tortured bodies.• I took the collar off, removed the stones, put the rest in the sack and took it to the gibbet.Origin gibbet (1100-1200) Old French gibet, from gibe “pole” 