headsman

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of headsman Several other leading figures of the period ended their days on the executioner’s block, including the unhappy Comte de Chalais, whose headsman bungled the job and ended up frantically chopping away at his screaming victim with a small hatchet. David A. Bell, Foreign Affairs, 1 Mar. 2012 Even if your reality is the headsman’s block! Helen Shaw, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2021 Two other men, subjects of excellent Holbein drawings in the show, would keep appointments with the headsman. Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022 Once upon a time, the queen could have sent rebels to the Tower and the headsman’s block, even relatives—especially relatives. Matt Seaton, The New York Review of Books, 9 Mar. 2021 The British prime minister has assembled a trio of headsmen to sever Britain from the mainland. Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 22 Mar. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for headsman
Noun
  • Several other leading figures of the period ended their days on the executioner’s block, including the unhappy Comte de Chalais, whose headsman bungled the job and ended up frantically chopping away at his screaming victim with a small hatchet.
    David A. Bell, Foreign Affairs, 1 Mar. 2012
  • Three executioners will fire from behind a small opening, positioned approximately 15 feet away.
    Tom Rogers, Newsweek, 22 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Did Erik Menendez really play hangman with Leslie Abramson in court?
    Jessica Sager, People.com, 27 Sep. 2024
  • The second story is about Eichmann’s prison guard, Haim (Yoav Levi), a Moroccan Jew who takes pains to make sure his charge is unharmed and delivered to the hangman’s noose in as good a shape as possible.
    Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire, 28 June 2024
Noun
  • Edelman was tapped as a replacement for the original director, Ava DuVernay, after Netflix and representatives of Comerica Bank, the interim executor for Prince’s estate, made a deal for the doc in 2018.
    Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 7 Mar. 2025
  • And in Congress, Democratic lawmakers representing the party’s progressive and centrist wings alike have cast Musk as the chief architect, executor and beneficiary of the new administration, portraying him as an unelected oligarch who is steamrolling the Constitution and stealing from taxpayers.
    Lisa Lerer, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world.
    NPR, NPR, 5 Mar. 2025
  • At 14, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress — though arguably her role, as a girl searching for her father's murderer in the Wild West, was a lead part.
    Diana Pearl, People.com, 2 Mar. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Headsman.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/headsman. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.

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