Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural hang·men. for 1.
- a person who hangs criminals who are condemned to death; public executioner.
- a word game in which one player selects a word that the other player must guess by supplying each of its letters: for each incorrect guess a part of a stick figure of a man who has been hanged is drawn.
noun plural -men
- an official who carries out a sentence of hanging on condemned criminals
public executioner, mid-14c. (mid-13c. as a surname), from hang (v.) + man (n.). As the name of a spelling game, by 1951. Hangestere “female executioner” is found mid-15c.