hanging offence

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

an offence or mistake so serious it warrants severe punishment

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

một tội lỗi hoặc sai lầm nghiêm trọng đến mức đáng bị trừng phạt nghiêm khắc

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: an offence deserving of hanging
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The CEO's fraud was a hanging offence and he was fired immediately

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “hanging offence” mean?

an offence or mistake so serious it warrants severe punishment Literally: an offence deserving of hanging

Is “hanging offence” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.