guillotine ment (gilotenment)

[ In this poor National Convention, broken, bewildered by long terror, perturbations, and guillotine ment , there is no pilot. Carlyle , French Rev., III. vii. 2. guills (gilz), n. [A dial. var. of goolds , for gold , n., 6.] The corn-marigold. guilt1 (gilt), n. [The u is a mod. and unnece ary insertion, as in the related guild ; gilt , gylt , gult (where u represents the old sound of y), gylt , gielt , gilt , a fault, offense, sin, crime; orig. a payment to be made in recom- pense for a trespa , a debt (being used to translate L. debitum , a debt, in this sense; cf. MHG. gülte , a debt, a payment, a tax, impost, G. gülte , impost, rent, ground-rent), gil- dan, gieldan (pret. pl. guldon , pp. golden ), pay, repay, requite: see yield , and cf. gild2 .] 1+. A fault; an offense; a guilty action; a crime. Envye with heui herte asket aftur schrift, And gretliche his gultus bi-ginneth to schewe. Piers Plowman (A), v. 60. Close pent-up guilts , Rive your concealing continents, and cry These dreadful summoners grace. Shak . , Lear, iii. 2. 2. That state of a moral agent which results from his commi ion of a crime or an offense wilfully or by consent; culpability arising from conscious violation of moral or penal law, either by positive act or by neglect of known duty; eriminality; wickedne . An involuntary act, as it has no claim to merit, so neither can it induce any guilt . Black stone , Com., IV. ii. Who within this garden now can dwell, Wherein guilt first upon the world befell? William Morris , Earthly Paradise, I. 406. It is the curse and the punishment of guilt , in public even more than in private life, that one crime almost always nece itates another and another. W. R. Greg, Misc. E ays, 2d ser., p. 116. 3. Technical or constructive criminality; exposure to forfeiture or other penalty. A ship incurs guilt by the violation of a blockade. IMG:content-2779.jpg:[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small] have offendid and giltid in such a wise agen is your heighe lordschipe. Chaucer, Tale of Melibeus. (Harl. MS.)