noun / verb
garrote
guh-RAHT/ɡəˈrɑt/
A device for strangling someone, or the act of using it.
The museum displays a garrote once used for executions.
Etymology
The Spanish word named the stick used to twist a cord tight in an execution. The English sense names the strangling cord or wire itself.
More examples
- In the novel, the spy carries a concealed garrote.
- The report says the victim was garroted, not shot.
- The historian describes execution by garrote in nineteenth-century Spain.
Forms
garrote · garrotes · garroted · garroting
Similar words
- strangle
- Describes killing by neck compression, without specifying a device.
- choke
- Can describe blocked breathing from food, not just neck pressure.