Definition of "guillotine" []

• A device consisting of a heavy blade held aloft between upright guides and dropped to behead the victim below. (noun)
• An instrument, such as a paper cutter, similar in action to a guillotine. (noun)
• To behead with a guillotine. (verb-transitive)
• To cut with or as if with a guillotine. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "So this interest in the guillotine is the centrifugal force, if you will."
• "His streamlined, Shaolin-infused raps prioritized what he termed guillotine swordsmanship and the God theory of Five Percent, the Nation of Islam offshoot-not commercial claptrap."
• "Why bother with the Divine Right of Kings when the guillotine is handy?"