Dictionary

ravenstone en · NOUN

Etymology

From a calque of German Rabenstein, equivalent to raven + stone.

Meanings

1. (historical) A place of execution; gallows
   • In 1811, for instance, King Friedrich of Württemberg ordered that the permanent gallows and ravenstones be dismantled and that the exposure of dead criminal bodies should be abandoned. 2015, Richard Ward, A Global History of Execution and the Criminal Corpse:
   • Three years later, in 1811, King Friedrich of Wurttemberg ordered the dismantling of permanent gallows and ravenstones and the ending of the practice of exposing malefactors' corpses. 1996, Richard J. Evans, Rituals of Retribution: Capital Punishment in Germany, 1600-1987:
   • [...] — The raven sits / On the raven-stone, And his black wing flits / O'er the milk-white bone; [...] 1841, George Noël Gordon Baron Byron, The Works of Lord Byron:
2. (UK, dialectal) A gravestone

Forms