dry guillotine
English
Etymology
As an alternative (and bloodless) punishment to the guillotine.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
dry guillotine (uncountable)
- (historical, slang) Forced deportation to a penal colony, especially as a punishment during the French Revolution.
- 1989, Ralph Gibson, A Social History of French Catholicism, Routledge 1989, p. 52:
- Nor could they forget the 200-odd priests massacred in the Paris prisons in September 1792, [...] or the 118 who never came back from the dry guillotine that was French Guiana.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 517:
- It disposed of political opponents mainly through the ‘dry guillotine’ of deportation rather than by physical liquidation.
- 1989, Ralph Gibson, A Social History of French Catholicism, Routledge 1989, p. 52:
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