Idioms

a stay of execution

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a stay of execution

An official command to suspend a court-ordered action. Despite its wording and common usage, the phrase is not limited to capital punishment and can be applied to any sort of suspended court order. The governor ordered a stay of execution after new DNA evidence had been discovered by investigators. The lawyers are trying to get a stay of execution on the injunction order, but they might run out of time. A stay of execution saved the wrongfully accused man's life. Today, he's a free man.
See also: execution, of, stay
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

a stay of execution

a delay in carrying out a court order.
See also: execution, of, stay
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
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References in periodicals archive
Supporters group City Fans United said: "The stay of execution given to the club in the High Court is of little comfort to Chester supporters.
Seker-Is Union, union of sugar refinery workers, appealed in September last year for the stay of execution of the tender.
Centre manager and Labour councillor Rachel Lancaster, said support from the council's ruling Tories meant a stay of execution when 25 per cent more people were calling in for advice on debt problems.
Jose Ernesto Medellin (Petitioner), a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas, applied for a stay of execution. A jury had convicted him of raping and strangling two teenaged girls.
A US federal court has given a stay of execution to 85 sea lions slated to be killed to help boost salmon stocks below a dam connecting the states of Washington and Oregon.
But an appeal to the government planning inspectorate has given the building a three-year stay of execution.
Friday, the sixth day, was also the day that God created animals, so abstaining from meat is a symbolic "stay of execution" for cows, pigs, and sheep--just as the cross saves us from eternal death.
A popular library which was threatened with closure has been given a stay of execution.
A TENNIS club threatened with closure because of a lack of cash and a spate of vandalism has been handed a stay of execution.
Pakistan's president has granted a stay of execution for a British-Pakistani man who was set to hang next month for the killing of a taxi driver 18 years ago.
The prisoner was granted a stay of execution. The district court held that the state's failure to timely produce the execution protocol violated due process, and the balance of hardships favored a stay of execution.
Liverpool had delayed a change with the promise that a Champions League place would earn Houllier a temporary stay of execution. But, even that, can no longer save him from being booted out.
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