"gallows bird" meaning in English

See gallows bird in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: gallows birds [plural]
Etymology: From gallows + bird. Compare virtually identical German construction Galgenvogel (literally “gallows-fowl" or "gallows-bird”), and French construction gibier de potence, as well as similar English jailbird. Etymology templates: {{af|en|gallows|bird}} gallows + bird, {{cog|de|-}} German, {{m|de|Galgenvogel|lit=gallows-fowl" or "gallows-bird}} Galgenvogel (literally “gallows-fowl" or "gallows-bird”), {{cog|fr|-}} French, {{m|fr|gibier de potence}} gibier de potence, {{cog|en|jailbird}} English jailbird Head templates: {{en-noun}} gallows bird (plural gallows birds)
  1. (archaic) A person who deserves, or is likely, to be hanged. Tags: archaic Categories (topical): Capital punishment, People, Prison Hypernyms: criminal, villain Related terms: jailbird, die by hanging, hangworthy, kill by hanging Translations (person who deserves to be hanged): обесник (obesnik) [masculine] (Bulgarian), galgenaas [neuter] (Dutch), nutraĵo de eŝafodo (Esperanto), võllaroog (Estonian), gibier de potence [masculine] (French), pendard [masculine] (French), ჩამოსახრჩობელი (čamosaxrčobeli) (Georgian), სათოკე (satoḳe) (Georgian), Galgenvogel [masculine] (German), akasztófáravaló (Hungarian), akasztófavirág (Hungarian), ropaire gaid [masculine] (Irish), pendaglio da forca [masculine] (Italian), crux [feminine] (Latin), ви́сельник (víselʹnik) [masculine] (Russian), carne de patíbulo [feminine] (Spanish), ши́беник (šýbenyk) [masculine] (Ukrainian)
    Sense id: en-gallows_bird-en-noun-Rs5dy62s Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Synonyms: hangdog, wag-halter, gallows bird, gallows-bird, gallowsbird, crack-hemp [obsolete], crack-rope [obsolete], gallows [colloquial, obsolete], gallows bird [archaic], hang dog [obsolete], hangdog [obsolete], hempie [British, dialectal, obsolete], scapegallows [obsolete], slip-halter [obsolete], wag-halter [obsolete]

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for gallows bird meaning in English (6.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gallows",
        "3": "bird"
      },
      "expansion": "gallows + bird",
      "name": "af"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "German",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Galgenvogel",
        "lit": "gallows-fowl\" or \"gallows-bird"
      },
      "expansion": "Galgenvogel (literally “gallows-fowl\" or \"gallows-bird”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fr",
        "2": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "French",
      "name": "cog"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fr",
        "2": "gibier de potence"
      },
      "expansion": "gibier de potence",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "jailbird"
      },
      "expansion": "English jailbird",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From gallows + bird. Compare virtually identical German construction Galgenvogel (literally “gallows-fowl\" or \"gallows-bird”), and French construction gibier de potence, as well as similar English jailbird.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gallows birds",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "gallows bird (plural gallows birds)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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        {
          "kind": "topical",
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          "name": "Capital punishment",
          "orig": "en:Capital punishment",
          "parents": [
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            "Death",
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            "Justice",
            "Human",
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          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Prison",
          "orig": "en:Prison",
          "parents": [
            "Buildings",
            "Law enforcement",
            "Buildings and structures",
            "Crime prevention",
            "Emergency services",
            "Law",
            "Architecture",
            "Crime",
            "Public safety",
            "Justice",
            "Applied sciences",
            "Art",
            "Criminal law",
            "Society",
            "Public administration",
            "Security",
            "Sciences",
            "Culture",
            "All topics",
            "Government",
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            "Politics"
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1943, Esther Hoskins Forbes, Johnny Tremain",
          "text": "Everybody along Long Wharf knows you called him a gallows bird. He's not used to it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Sebastian Brant, The Ship of Fools",
          "text": "The story of the man who bit off his father's nose for rearing him as a gallows bird is as old as Aesop, but no known source before Brant mentions the son's name.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Paul Steinberg, Speak You Also: A Holocaust Memoir",
          "text": "Before me stood not Philippe but a gallows bird no respectable citizen would want to meet up with on a lonely road.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who deserves, or is likely, to be hanged."
      ],
      "hypernyms": [
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "word": "criminal"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "word": "villain"
        }
      ],
      "id": "en-gallows_bird-en-noun-Rs5dy62s",
      "links": [
        [
          "hanged",
          "hanged"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) A person who deserves, or is likely, to be hanged."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "jailbird"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "word": "die by hanging"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "word": "hangworthy"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "word": "kill by hanging"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hangdog"
        },
        {
          "word": "wag-halter"
        },
        {
          "word": "gallows bird"
        },
        {
          "word": "gallows-bird"
        },
        {
          "word": "gallowsbird"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "crack-hemp"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "crack-rope"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "colloquial",
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "gallows"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "archaic"
          ],
          "word": "gallows bird"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "hang dog"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "hangdog"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "British",
            "dialectal",
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "hempie"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "scapegallows"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "slip-halter"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
          "tags": [
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "wag-halter"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "obesnik",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "обесник"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "galgenaas"
        },
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "word": "nutraĵo de eŝafodo"
        },
        {
          "code": "et",
          "lang": "Estonian",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "word": "võllaroog"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "gibier de potence"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pendard"
        },
        {
          "code": "ka",
          "lang": "Georgian",
          "roman": "čamosaxrčobeli",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "word": "ჩამოსახრჩობელი"
        },
        {
          "code": "ka",
          "lang": "Georgian",
          "roman": "satoḳe",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "word": "სათოკე"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Galgenvogel"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "word": "akasztófáravaló"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "word": "akasztófavirág"
        },
        {
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "ropaire gaid"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pendaglio da forca"
        },
        {
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "crux"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "víselʹnik",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "ви́сельник"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "carne de patíbulo"
        },
        {
          "code": "uk",
          "lang": "Ukrainian",
          "roman": "šýbenyk",
          "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "ши́беник"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "gallows bird"
}
{
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      "expansion": "gallows + bird",
      "name": "af"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "German",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Galgenvogel",
        "lit": "gallows-fowl\" or \"gallows-bird"
      },
      "expansion": "Galgenvogel (literally “gallows-fowl\" or \"gallows-bird”)",
      "name": "m"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fr",
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      },
      "expansion": "French",
      "name": "cog"
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        "1": "fr",
        "2": "gibier de potence"
      },
      "expansion": "gibier de potence",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "jailbird"
      },
      "expansion": "English jailbird",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From gallows + bird. Compare virtually identical German construction Galgenvogel (literally “gallows-fowl\" or \"gallows-bird”), and French construction gibier de potence, as well as similar English jailbird.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gallows birds",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "gallows bird (plural gallows birds)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hypernyms": [
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "word": "criminal"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "word": "villain"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "jailbird"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "word": "die by hanging"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "word": "hangworthy"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "word": "kill by hanging"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Capital punishment",
        "en:People",
        "en:Prison"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1943, Esther Hoskins Forbes, Johnny Tremain",
          "text": "Everybody along Long Wharf knows you called him a gallows bird. He's not used to it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Sebastian Brant, The Ship of Fools",
          "text": "The story of the man who bit off his father's nose for rearing him as a gallows bird is as old as Aesop, but no known source before Brant mentions the son's name.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Paul Steinberg, Speak You Also: A Holocaust Memoir",
          "text": "Before me stood not Philippe but a gallows bird no respectable citizen would want to meet up with on a lonely road.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who deserves, or is likely, to be hanged."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "hanged",
          "hanged"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) A person who deserves, or is likely, to be hanged."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hangdog"
        },
        {
          "word": "wag-halter"
        },
        {
          "word": "gallows bird"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "gallows-bird"
    },
    {
      "word": "gallowsbird"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "crack-hemp"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "crack-rope"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "gallows"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ],
      "word": "gallows bird"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "hang dog"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "hangdog"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "dialectal",
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "hempie"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "scapegallows"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "slip-halter"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:gallows bird",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "wag-halter"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "obesnik",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "обесник"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "galgenaas"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "word": "nutraĵo de eŝafodo"
    },
    {
      "code": "et",
      "lang": "Estonian",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "word": "võllaroog"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "gibier de potence"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pendard"
    },
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "roman": "čamosaxrčobeli",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "word": "ჩამოსახრჩობელი"
    },
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "roman": "satoḳe",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "word": "სათოკე"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Galgenvogel"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "word": "akasztófáravaló"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "word": "akasztófavirág"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ropaire gaid"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pendaglio da forca"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "crux"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "víselʹnik",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ви́сельник"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "carne de patíbulo"
    },
    {
      "code": "uk",
      "lang": "Ukrainian",
      "roman": "šýbenyk",
      "sense": "person who deserves to be hanged",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ши́беник"
    }
  ],
  "word": "gallows bird"
}

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