TO GIVE THE FROG’S MARCH, verb. phr. (common).—To carry a man face downwards to the station; a device adopted with drunken or turbulent prisoners.
1871. Evening Standard, ‘Clerkenwell Police Report,’ 18 April. In cross-examination the police stated that they did not give the defendant the FROG’S MARCH. The FROG’S MARCH was described to be carrying the face downwards.
1884. Daily News, Oct. 4, p. 5, col. 2. They had to resort to a mode of carrying him, familiarly known in the force, we believe, as the FROG TROT, or sometimes as the FROG’S MARCH.… The prisoner is carried with his face downwards and his arms drawn behind him.
1888. Daily Telegraphy, 22 Dec. Whether the ‘bobbies’ ran the tipsyman in, treating him meanwhile to a taste of the FROG’S MARCH, and whether he was fined or imprisoned for assaulting the police, is not upon the record.
1890. Bird o’ Freedom, 19 March, p. 1, col. 1. And then he gets the FROG’S MARCH to the nearest Tealeaf’s.
