English
pillory
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈpɪləɹi/
Noun

pillory (plural pillories)

  1. A framework on a post, with holes for the hands and head, used as a means of punishment and humiliation.
    • [c. 1370–1390, [William Langland], “[Passus 3]”, in The Vision of Pierce Plowman [...] (in Middle English), imprinted at London: By Roberte Crowley, […], published 1550, OCLC 837479643 ↗, folio xiii, verso ↗:
      Maires and Maceris that meanes be betwene / The Kynge and the comon to kepe the lawes / To pũnyſhen on pyleries and pynning ſtoles / Bruſterrs and bakeſters, bochers and cokes / For theſe ar mẽ on this mold þ moſt harme worketh / To the pore people that percel mele byghe[...]]
  • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: Printed for Nath[aniel] Ponder […], OCLC 228725984 ↗; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, OCLC 5190338 ↗, page 126 ↗:
    The other replied, That for ought they could ſee, the men were quiet, and ſober, and intended no body any harm ; and that there were many that Traded in their fair, that were more worthy to be put into the Cage, yea, and the Pillory too, then were the men that they had abuſed.
    • Translations Verb

    pillory

    1. (transitive) To put in a pillory.
    2. (transitive) To subject to humiliation, scorn, ridicule or abuse.
    3. (transitive) To criticize harshly.
    Translations Translations Translations

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