lethal chamber

English

Noun

lethal chamber (plural lethal chambers)

1. A gas chamber, especially one used for euthanizing animals.
   • 1909, Rudyard Kipling, "The Power of the Dog":

     When the fourteen years which Nature permits, Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits, And the vet's unspoken prescription runs, To lethal chambers or loaded guns

Verb

lethal chamber (third-person singular simple present lethal chambers, present participle lethal chambering, simple past and past participle lethal chambered)

1. (transitive) To execute (someone) by means of lethal chamber.
   • 1913, Oliver Onions, The Story of Louie:

     "They ought to be lethal-chambered, nasty little sewer-rats, one of 'em's saved them the trouble at any rate."

   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not… (Parade's End), Penguin, published 2012, page 39:

     ‘And at once he'll be on his high-horse – he knows everything! – and he'll prove, prove, that all unhealthy children must be lethal-chambered or the world will go to pieces.’