PILORY (Fr. pilori, probably from Lat. pila, a pillar), a mode of punishment by a public exposure of the offender long used in most countries of Europe. No punishment has been inflicted in so many different ways as that of the pillory. Sometimes the machine was constructed so that several criminals might be pilloried at the same time; but it was commonly capable of holding but one at once. Francis Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i., p. 146, gives six representations of distinct varieties of this instrument. These varieties are all reducible, however, to the simplest form of the pillory. It consisted of a wooden frame or screen raised on a pillar or post several feet from the ground, and behind which the culprit stood supported on a platform, his head and hands being thrust through holes in the screen, so as to be exposed in front. This screen, in the more complicated forms of the instrument, consisted of a perforated iron circle or carcan (hence the name given to the pillory in French), which secured the hands and heads of several persons at the same time. The pillory was abolished in Britain in 1837, by the statute 1 Vict., c. 23; and in France in 1832.