Executes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Carries out or performs a specific task or action ; carries out a legal sentence, especially causing death as ordered by law
2. Performs a duty or action formally or methodically ; enforces a judicial decision, often resulting in capital punishment
3. Completes a planned action or instruction ; implements a court-mandated punishment, typically death

Etymology: "Executes" is the third-person singular form of "execute," so its story is really the story of the verb. The core idea is "following through." The Latin "exsequor" combined "ex-" (out) with "sequor" (to follow), and it was used for going through with a deed, or carrying a punishment all the way to its end. That sense of seeing a thing carried out to completion is still present in the modern meanings. The word reached English through Old French "executer," which is the ancestor of modern French "exécuter." Over time, the verb took on its two main uses: carrying out a plan, task, or order, and, in legal contexts, carrying out a sentence, sometimes meaning execution by the state. The legal and violent sense developed from the older idea of following a punishment through to its finish, while the everyday sense of performing a task grew from the same notion of completing what was intended.

Synonyms: performs, conducts, implements, carries out, enacts

Antonyms: fails, neglects, abandons, stalls, halts