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Definition of pillory : 1. A frame of adjustable boards erected on a post, and having holes through which the head and hands of an offender were thrust so as to be exposed in front of it.
2. Figuratively, to expose to public scorn.
3. To set in, or punish with, the pillory.

Synonyms:

blare, smash, frustrate, subdue, savage, bedevil, blast, rag, shoot, torment, nail, knock down, shell, boom, dun, mortify

avenge, burden, keelhaul, confine, chastise, crucify, agonize, distress, execute, persecute, try, fine, chasten, penalize, imprison, correct, sentence, castigate, incarcerate, lambaste, punish, reprise, torture, judge, afflict, discipline, anguish

handcuff, pinion, coop, cooler, penal colony, Bastille, jug, dungeon, jailhouse, manacle, straight jacket, pound, San Quentin, gaol, jail, harness, shackle, fence, stronghold, reformatory, penitentiary, vise, collar, cell, cage, prison, pen, brig, tether, irons, Alcatraz, reform school, keep, oubliette, lockup, stockade, bridle

bull whip, gas chamber, gallows, rawhide, cane, birch rod, lash, whipping post, rod, noose, scaffold, truncheon, electric chair, maiden, captivity, gibbet, switch, rack, strap, cowhide, stake, ax, rope, stocks, thumbscrew, whip, torture chamber, block, solitary confinement, thong, guillotine, iron

expose, debunk, ostracize, humiliate, mock, ridicule, discomfit, disgrace, show up

denounce, badmouth, discredit, smear, slander, shame, blacken, scandalize, stigmatize, besmirch, besmear, detract, tarnish, denigrate, traduce, libel, sully, vilify, calumniate, defame, dishonor, malign

Usage examples:

• The Town Hall contains the ancient pillory, which was described as a very handy affair, handcuffs, leg- irons, special constables' staves, which were always much needed for the usual riots on Gunpowder Plot Day, and the old primitive fire- engine dated 1745. The town has some remarkable plate. - "Vanishing England", P. H. Ditchfield.
• His desire, therefore, is not, as that of the seventeenth- century moralists had been, to put human egotism in the pillory and to pelt it with rotten eggs, but so far as possible to encourage and affirm a decent, self- respecting egotism. - "Three French Moralists and The Gallantry of France", Edmund Gosse.
• But there are two of us, and rather let my head be thrown into the dust along with the head of my Michal than her name and mine should be written over the pillory to our eternal shame. - "Pretty Michal", Mór Jókai.