From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
gibbet
n : instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from
which condemned persons are executed by hanging [syn:
gallows, gallows tree, gallows-tree, gallous]
v 1: hang on an execution instrument
2: expose to ridicule or public scorn [syn: pillory]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Gibbet \Gib"bet\, n. [OE. gibet, F. gibet, in OF. also club, fr.
LL. gibetum;; cf. OF. gibe sort of sickle or hook, It.
giubbetto gibbet, and giubbetta, dim. of giubba mane, also,
an under waistcoat, doublet, Prov. It. gibba (cf. Jupon);
so that it perhaps originally signified a halter, a rope
round the neck of malefactors; or it is, perhaps, derived fr.
L. gibbus hunched, humped, E. gibbous; or cf. E. jib a sail.]
[1913 Webster]
1. A kind of gallows; an upright post with an arm projecting
from the top, on which, formerly, malefactors were hanged
in chains, and their bodies allowed to remain as a
warning.
[1913 Webster]
2. The projecting arm of a crane, from which the load is
suspended; the jib.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Gibbet \Gib"bet\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gibbeted; p. pr. & vb.
n. Gibbeting.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To hang and expose on a gibbet.
[1913 Webster]
2. To expose to infamy; to blacken.
[1913 Webster]
I'll gibbet up his name. --Oldham.
[1913 Webster]