noyade
/nwɑˈjɑd/
noun
- An execution carried out by drowning, especially as a mass punishment during the French Revolution.
- The noyade was one of the most brutal methods of execution during the Reign of Terror.
- The term 'noyade' comes from the French word for drowning.
- Historians estimate that thousands of people died in the noyades ordered by the revolutionary tribunal.