TO DIE OF A HEMPEN FEVER, verb. phr. (old).—To be hanged. For synonyms, see LADDER.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. HEMPEN FEVER. A man who was hanged is said to have DIED OF A HEMPEN FEVER; and, in Dorsetshire, to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 76. She had been married four times; three of her husbands died of HEMPEN FEVERS.
