Phrase guide

Tyburn tree

name · noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

name

Meaning 1

A gallows, situated at Tyburn, Middlesex, (present-day Greater London), that was used for public hangings from medieval times until 1783 (when executions were moved to Newgate Prison).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

Examples

  • 1896, Francis Watt, Tyburn Tree, W. E. Henley (editor), The New Review, Volume 15, William Heinemann, page 692, None can exactly fix the place of Tyburn Tree. [...] Tyburn tree stood within a gunshot to the north-west of the Marble Arch.
  • 1898, Charles F. King, Roundabout Rambles in Northern Europe, Lee and Shepard, page 163, Just before turning from Hyde Park into this road, Mr. French pointed out where the famous "Tyburn Tree" once stood. "What does that mean?" Fred asked. "‘The Tyburn Tree,’" replied Mr. French, "was sometimes called the ‘Three-Legged Mare’ because it was a triangle on three legs. It was where the public executions took place before 1783. It was selected because it was so remote from London."

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Tyburn gallows, Middlesex gallows, Three-legged mare

Antonyms: none provided

2

name

Meaning 2

Alternative letter-case form of Tyburn tree.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A gallows.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly, obsolete

Examples

  • 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.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

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.