How to Use executioner in a Sentence

executioner

noun
  • Raleigh tells a nervous executioner to strike, which apparently is real.
    Alice Burton, Vulture, 3 May 2024
  • An executioner climbed a ladder behind the post, put the noose around the man’s neck and tightened the rope.
    Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post, 9 Feb. 2018
  • The son of an executioner falls for the daughter of a wedding singer.
    Shalini Dore, Variety, 11 Nov. 2021
  • The executioner struck Anne’s head off with a single swing of his sword.
    Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Oct. 2020
  • Romell Broom made it out of the death chamber after his executioners tried for two hours to find a good vein.
    Tracy Connor, NBC News, 3 Mar. 2018
  • In a dark room lit by oil lamps, a man with slicked-back gray hair and the face of an executioner sits at a large table stacked to the ceiling with files.
    Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 26 Dec. 2018
  • The defendant took it upon himself to be the judge, the jury, and the executioner over a $2 [drink].
    Fox News, 17 Aug. 2019
  • That punch loomed like an executioner’s sword, and when Davis landed it against the ropes in the sixth, Santa Cruz’s body seemed to short circuit.
    Childs Walker, baltimoresun.com, 2 Nov. 2020
  • In the Book of Ezekiel, for instance, the cherubim help a divine executioner hurl down burning coal to destroy the city of Jerusalem.
    The Salt Lake Tribune, 12 May 2021
  • The lines ran into a slot in the green-tiled back wall, behind which was the chemical room, the unseen chamber in which sat the executioner.
    Caroline Lester, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2021
  • Iran remains one of the world’s top executioners, having put to death at least 203 prisoners since the start of this year alone.
    Elvia Limón, Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2023
  • The third episode's synopsis seems to offer least of all in terms of substance, though the title is a play on the title of an executioner.
    David Z. Morris, Fortune, 16 July 2016
  • In a country where the police are judge, jury and executioner, no one can feel safe.
    The Economist, 8 Mar. 2018
  • Finally, the signal will be given to the executioner to begin the flow of lethal drugs.
    Pamela Colloff, ProPublica, 4 Dec. 2019
  • Just one person is standing in the way: Spike, who can’t bring himself to be his executioner or even to stand back and let Vicious die.
    Scott Meslow, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2021
  • Instead, the police took the role of judge, jury and executioner.
    NBC News, 14 Aug. 2019
  • Flight does not mean judge, jury and executioner and that’s what happened here.
    Ryan Young, CNN, 16 Feb. 2023
  • In some gruesome cases, executioners are forced to cut into the inmate's neck or groin to find a place to insert the needle.
    Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 23 Mar. 2023
  • The switches control a gene called Bax, an executioner that compels a cell to kill itself.
    Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 1 Sep. 2011
  • Only two jobs were lower: the grave digger and the executioner.
    Rick Steves, chicagotribune.com, 30 July 2021
  • In Wong’s version, the executioners wear the blue uniforms of Hong Kong police, seen by many to be closer to Beijing than to the city’s own residents.
    Vivienne Chow, Quartz, 31 Dec. 2019
  • The tennis ball is a bit smaller than usual, and more tightly wound; it’s made of leather and the hair of Anne Boleyn, which was preserved by her French executioner.
    The New Yorker, 9 July 2023
  • In 1536, condemned English queen Anne Boleyn knelt in a courtyard in front of an executioner’s sword and awaited the fatal blow to her neck.
    Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 11 Oct. 2022
  • Police cannot act as judge, jury and executioner on our streets.
    Dave Collins, The Seattle Times, 16 May 2017
  • An axe was imported from Denmark to carry out the penalty and the brother of one of the victims was chosen as executioner.
    Bloomberg.com, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Brock Purdy — the final player selected in the 2022 draft and more of an executioner of the Shanahan system.
    Tim Cowlishaw, Dallas News, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Virginia, once a prolific executioner, did so in March, bringing the number of states to have abolished the death penalty to 23.
    NBC News, 16 Dec. 2021
  • Those were the days when Woods was an executioner in exercise clothing.
    Karen Crouse, New York Times, 14 June 2018
  • The market was henceforth to be judge, jury and executioner.
    Duff McDonald, Newsweek, 6 Apr. 2017
  • Congress is judge, jury, and executioner, with no witnesses for the defense allowed.
    Brendan Ahern, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'executioner.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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