Execution

Etymology

Middle English execucion, from Anglo-French, from Latin exsecution-, exsecutio, from exsequi to execute, from ex- + sequi to follow

• Date: 14th century

Definitions

• 1 : the act or process of executing : performance
• 2 : a putting to death especially as a legal penalty
• 3 : the process of enforcing a legal judgment (as against a debtor); also : a judicial writ directing such enforcement
• 4 : the act or mode or result of performance
• 5 archaic : effective or destructive action <his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution — Shakespeare> —usually used with do <as soon as day came, we went out to see what execution we had done — Daniel Defoe>