guillotine

plural guillotines

1. alsofigurativelyhistoricalA machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation, consisting of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy diagonal-edged blade which is dropped onto the neck of the person to be executed; also, execution using this machine.

   For two-and-twenty years he [Joseph-Ignace Guillotin], unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine, see nothing but guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to outlive [Julius] Cæsar’s.

   1837, Thomas Carlyle, “The Procession”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (States-General), pages 143–144

2. A device or machine with a cutting blade.
   1. broadlyA device used for cutting the pages of books, stacks of paper, etc., to straight edges, usually by means of a hinged or sliding blade attached to a flat platform.
   2. broadlymedicineAn instrument with a sliding blade for cutting the tonsils, uvula, or other body parts.
3. UKbroadlyinformalgovernmentA parliamentary procedure for fixing the dates when various stages of discussion of a bill must end, to ensure that the enactment of the bill proceeds expeditiously.

   1 more example

   The right hon. Gentleman is making a great stooshie about time in relation to this Bill, but was it not the case that, when the SNP [Scottish National Party] Scottish Government introduced their continuity Bill in the Scottish Parliament, they operated a ruthless guillotine to prevent proper scrutiny of it? That is the case; they ran a guillotine on that Bill, and there was a very limited amount of time allowed for debate and scrutiny, yet he complains about that happening here.

   2019 October 22, Stephen Kerr, Member of Parliament for Stirling, “Second Reading of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill”, in House of Commons Debates (House of Commons)^(https://web.archive.org/web/20191024000813/https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-10-22/debates/277C5A20-456D-469B-A415-D04AFFD83248/EuropeanUnion(WithdrawalAgreement)Bill), volume 666, archived from the original on 24 Oct 2019, column 860

4. USbroadlyinformalgovernmentA legislative motion that debate be ended and a vote taken; a cloture.

present singular third person guillotines · participle present guillotining · participle past guillotined · past guillotined

1. To use a guillotine (on someone or something).
   1. alsofigurativelytransitiveTo execute (someone) with a guillotine.

      Many counterrevolutionaries were guillotined during the French Revolution.

      1 more example

      Besides providing online courses to their own (generally fee-paying) students, universities have felt obliged to join the MOOC revolution to avoid being guillotined by it.

      2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2020

   2. transitiveTo cut or trim (a body part, a stack of paper, etc.) with a guillotine.
2. UKinformaltransitivegovernmentTo end discussion (about a parliamentary bill or part of one) by invoking a guillotine procedure.
3. USinformaltransitivegovernmentTo end (a legislative debate) by invoking cloture.
4. figurativelytransitiveTo end anything abruptly.

   Forgetting Solitaire, he almost dragged Bond through the door. At the last moment he remembered the girl and seized her with his other hand and pulled her in too, banging the door shut with his heel so that Mrs Stuyvesant's 'I hope you have a happy...' was guillotined before the 'stay'.

   1954, Ian Fleming, “The Everglades”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 126