[f. BEHEAD v. + -ING1.] The action of cutting off the head; spec. of execution by decapitation.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 184. Nolde me tellen him alre monne dusiȝest, þet forsoke … ane nelde prikunge, uor ane bihefdunge.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Cyrurg. Whan he had a deade body by beheadyng or other wyse.
1585. Twynne, in Animadv., Introd. 75. The duke of Buckinghams beheadding.
1586–7. Churchw. Acc. St. Margaret’s, Westm. (Nichols, 1797), 21. Paid for ringing at the beheading of the Queen of Scotts.
1615. Hieron, Wks., I. 664. That story, which reports his beheading at Rome.
1732. Lediard, Sethos, II. VII. 54. The easiest and shortest of all deaths, beheading.
1863. Thackeray, in Cornh. Mag., Jan., 128. Battles and victories, treasons, kings, and beheadings, literary gentlemen, and the like.
fig. 1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., V. (1851), 115. For if the type of Priest be not taken away, then neither of the high Priest, it were a strange beheading.
