Tyburn tree
nounEtymology So called because at one time, criminals were executed by being hung from elm trees along the banks of the Tyburn Brook (historically, often confused with the nearby Tyburn River), a tributary stream which ran through Hyde Park.
1
Broadly, Obsolete A gallows.
- 1840, James W. Peppercorns (translator), Moses Maimonides, The Laws of the Hebrews, Relating to the Poor and the Stranger, Pelham Richardson, page civ, The wild Olive, and the Fig, were the Tyburn-trees of the Athenians.
- 1853, Herman Melville, White Jacket: Or, The World in a Man-of-War, Volume 2, Richard Bentley, page 276, But Hogarth should have converted the ship's masts themselves into Tyburn-trees, and thus, with the ocean for a background, closed the career of his hero.