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Strappaʹdo

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A military punishment formerly practised; it consisted of pulling an offender to a beam and then letting him down suddenly; by this means a limb was not unfrequently dislocated. (Italian, strappaʹre, to pull.)

“Were I at the strappado or the rack, Iʹd give no man a reason on compulsion.”—Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., ii. 4.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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