Obs. Forms: 1 waritroe, 3 waritreo, weritreo, warh treo, 5 warytre. [OE. *wearʓ- (węriʓ-) tréo, f. wearʓ WARY sb., wearʓ, węriʓ wicked + tréo TREE.] A gallows, gibbet. Often applied to the Cross.
a. 1200[?]. Charter of Æthelric, A. D. 706, in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., III. 375. Norð fro Beornedune siðe ðe wowe brondred; siðe to ðe waritroe.
c. 1205. Lay., 5714. And doð up and [an ?] waritreo [c. 1275 and doþ vp a wer-itreo] þer on heo scullen winden.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 122. Me ledde him amorwen uorte hongen o waritreo & driuen þuruh his four limes irene neiles. Ibid., 190. Þenne dusie worldes men goð bi grene weie, touward te waritreo & to deaðe of helle.
a. 1240. Wohunge, in O. E. Hom., I. 283. A nu raise þai up þe rode. Setis up þe warh treo.
c. 1290. Beket, 2192, in S. Eng. Leg., 169. Heo bi-radden for-to nime þat holi bodi: and with wilde hors to-drawe And sethþe hangen it on a waritreo.
c. 1425. Engl. Conq. Ireland, xiv. 34. Thay ne hadden no wone of warytres.
