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A fall off the ladder at the gallows; a hanging; -- so called from the practice of causing the criminal to stand on a ladder which was turned over, so throwing him off, when the signal was given. [Obs.]

omson. In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows. Burke. The shattered tower which now forms a vista from his window. Sir W. Scott.

] and what for lore. Chaucer. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom shrunk. Shak. The year before he had so used the matter that what by force, what by policy, he had taken from the Christians above thirty small castles. Knolles.