A gibbet is any structure devised for the purpose of displaying the body of an executed person. It could be a cage or a platform, a pole or a cross, but the form most recognizable to modern people is a simple gallows. In some jurisdictions, and for some offences, the body was left on the gibbet until it literally fell apart, at which point the bones were scattered.

The practice of gibbetting died out because it was recognized in the early 19th century as both barbarous and disgusting, and not sufficiently effective in deterring crime to make it worth imposing on the innocent majority.