noose
pronunciation
How to pronounce noose in British English:
UK [nu:s]
How to pronounce noose in American English:
US [nus]
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- Noun:
- a trap for birds or small mammals; often has a noose
- a loop formed in a cord or rope by means of a slipknot; it binds tighter as the cord or rope is pulled
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- Verb:
- make a noose in or of
- secure with a noose
Word Origin
- noose
- noose: [15] The notion underlying the word noose is of a ‘knot’, rather than of a ‘loop of rope made with a knot’. The word comes from nos or nous, the Old French descendant of Latin nodus ‘knot’. This was the source of English node [16], of course, and of the diminutive form nodule [16], but it has also made a couple of less obvious contributions to English: dénouement [18], which comes via a French word denoting literally the ‘untying of a knot’, and newel [14] ‘staircase post’, which was borrowed from Old French nouel ‘knob’, a descendant of the medieval Latin diminutive nōdellus.=> dénouement, newel, node, nodule
- noose (n.)
- mid-15c., perhaps from Old French nos or cognate Old Provençal nous "knot," from Latin nodus "knot" (see net (n.)). Rare before c. 1600.
Example
- 1. The noose was tightening around the president 's neck .
- 2. In retrospect , one might say that the noose was tightening .
- 3. State regulation would tighten the noose .
- 4. To avoid the noose or the guillotine , criminals of the era would fake symptoms from the then-emerging field of psychology .
- 5. The sultan 's turret in a noose of light .