Word.ws English Dictionary

scapegallows

scapegallows noun: a criminal who has narrowly escaped from being hanged.

Noun

scapegallows (plural scapegallowses)

  1. (colloquial, dated) A criminal who has narrowly escaped from being hanged.
    • […] And remember this, 'scapegallows,' said Ralph, menacing him with his hand, 'that if we meet again, and you so much as notice me by one begging gesture, you shall see the inside of a jail once more […]1838–1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby

Synonyms of scapegallows

Forms of scapegallows

pluralscapegallowses
alternative form'scapegallows

Origin of scapegallows

From scape (archaic for escape) + gallows.

Questions about scapegallows

What does scapegallows mean?
Scapegallows means a criminal who has narrowly escaped from being hanged.
What part of speech is scapegallows?
Scapegallows is a noun.
What is the plural of scapegallows?
The plural of scapegallows is scapegallowses.

Words near scapegallows in the dictionary

  1. scape-bird
  2. scape-birds
  3. scape-wheel
  4. scape-wheels
  5. scaped
  6. scapegallows
  7. scapegallowses
  8. scapegoat
  9. scapegoatable
  10. scapegoated
  11. scapegoater

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scapegallows (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “scapegallows.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scapegallows. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.