noyade

[ nwah-yahd; French nwa-yad ]

noun

1. destruction or execution by drowning, especially as practiced at Nantes, France, in 1793–94, during the Reign of Terror.

noyade

/ nwɑːˈjɑːd; nwajad /

noun

1. French history execution by drowning, esp as practised during the Reign of Terror at Nantes from 1793 to 1794

Word History and Origins

Origin of noyade¹

1810–20; < French: drowning, equivalent to noy ( er ) to drown (< Latin necāre to kill) + -ade -ade ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of noyade¹

C19: from French, from noyer to drown, from Late Latin necāre to drown, from Latin: to put to death

Example Sentences

Aristocrats would be dragged from their retreats, consigned to local jails, finished off in batches by a noyade or a fusillade--be drowned or shot in droves.

From Project Gutenberg

Noyade, nwa-yad′, n. an infamous mode of drowning by means of a boat with movable bottom, practised by Carrier at Nantes, 1793-94.

From Project Gutenberg

A blind crowd, all the more cruel for its growing fears, might fell her with a shower of stones, or make her undergo the trial by water—the noyade.

From Project Gutenberg

It is not easy to give a notion of his conduct in the Convention, without using those emphatic terms, guillotinade, noyade, fusillade, mitraillade.

From Project Gutenberg

The stately bridge was occupied by a throng of people, who swore that the men under whose rule the Loire had been choked with corpses should have full personal experience of the nature of a noyade.

From Project Gutenberg