different between gallous vs gallows

English

Alternative forms

• gallus

Etymology

A distortion of gallows, used attributively. See -ous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æl?s/

Adjective

gallous

1. fit to be hanged; wicked; mischievous

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??æl??z/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??ælo?z/
• (US, dialectal) IPA^(key): /??æl?s/

Etymology 1

From Middle English galwes, galewes, galowe, galwe, from Old English ?ealga, from Proto-Germanic *galgô, from Proto-Indo-European *??alg?-, *??alg- (“long switch, rod, shaft, pole, perch”). Compare West Frisian galge, Dutch galg, German Galgen, Danish galge, Icelandic gálgi.

Noun

gallows (plural gallows or gallowses)

1. Wooden framework on which persons are put to death by hanging. [from 1300s]
2. (colloquial, obsolete) A wretch who deserves to be hanged.
3. (printing, obsolete) The rest for the tympan when raised.
4. (colloquial, obsolete) Suspenders; braces.
5. Any contrivance with posts and crossbeam for suspending objects.
   • 1971, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather (screenplay, third draft)

     Lit by the moonlight through the window, he can see a FIGURE in the hospital bed alone in the room, and under a transparent oxygen tent. […] Tubes hang from a steel gallows beside the bed, and run to his nose and mouth.

6. The main frame of a beam engine.

Synonyms

• (wooden framework used for hanging): gallows tree, gallow tree, hanging tree, gibbet

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

gallows

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of gallow