guillotine
n.n. a machine with a heavy blade that cuts off a person's head. It is also used to describe a tool that cuts through thick materials like wood or metal.
n. a device consisting of a heavy blade mounted on a frame, used for decapitation or for cutting through thick materials. In a political context, it refers to a vote that ends a debate and forces a final decision.
The history book describes the guillotine used during the French Revolution.
The committee used a guillotine to end the long debate and vote on the new law immediately.
While the historical guillotine is infamous for its role in the French Revolution, the modern surgical version is a precision instrument designed to make clean, rapid cuts through bone and tissue.
Borrowed from French guillotine, named after the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who proposed its use for capital punishment.
Borrowed from French guillotiner (“to execute with a guillotine, to guillotine”), from guillotine (see etymology 1) + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs).