[L., a. Gr. βάραθρον.] A pit, gulf. Hence: a. A deep pit at Athens, into which criminals condemned to death were thrown. b. (earlier in Eng.) The abyss, hell. c. An insatiable extortioner or glutton (so in It.).
a. 1849. Grote, Greece, II. xxxix. V. 69. Aristeides himself is reported to have said, ‘If the Athenians were wise, they would cast both of us into the barathrum.’
1874. Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, viii. 251. Had the body been … cast into the barathrum.
b. 1520. Treat. Galaunt, in Furniv., Ballads, I. 449. Trysed to baratrum, tossed in fere.
1607. Dekker, Knt.’s Conjur. 19. He flung away in a furie, and leapt into Barathrum.
c. 1609. Man in Moone (1849), 27. A bottomlesse Barathrum, a mercilesse mony-monger.
1633. Massinger, New Way, III. ii. You barathrum of the shambles!
