guillotine

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
guillotine /ˈgɪlətiːn, ˌgɪləˈtiːn/

▶noun

• 1 a machine with a heavy blade sliding vertically in grooves, used for beheading people.

• 2 a device with a descending or sliding blade used for cutting paper or sheet metal.

• 3 a surgical instrument with a sliding blade used typically for the removal of the tonsils.

• 4 Brit. (in parliament) a procedure used to limit discussion of a legislative bill by fixing times at which various parts of it must be voted on.

▶verb

• 1 execute by guillotine.

• 2 cut with a guillotine.

• 3 Brit. (in parliament) apply a guillotine to (a bill or debate).

– origin C18: from Fr., named after the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin.