View synonyms for garrote

garrote

or ga·rote, ga·rotte, gar·rotte

[ guh-rot, -roht ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a method of capital punishment of Spanish origin in which an iron collar is tightened around a condemned person's neck until death occurs by strangulation or by injury to the spinal column at the base of the brain.
the collarlike instrument used for this method of execution.
strangulation or throttling, especially in the course of a robbery.
an instrument, usually a cord or wire with handles attached at the ends, used for strangling a victim.

, gar·rot·ed, gar·rot·ing.

Origin of garrote¹

1615–25; < Spanish garrote or French garrot packing-stick < ?

Then, on the morning after Christmas in 1996, John found JonBenet crumpled in the wine cellar with a garrote sunk round her neck.

Harleston had been shifting slowly from one foot to the other, feeling behind him for the man with the garrote.

Instantly the garrote loosened; and Harleston, with a wild yell, sprang forward and swung straight at the point of Crenshaw's jaw.

He smiled—somewhat chillily, it must be admitted—and whispered, his speaking voice being shut off by the garrote.

Garrote also means a cudgel, or heavy walking-stick; and the tourniquet used by surgeons.

He was taken to Havana, and died by garrote in the little fortress La Punta.

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