subs. (old).—A form of torture: the culprit, his legs tied, was hoisted by a rope fastened to his arms behind his back, and was given a rapid descent stopped so suddenly that the jerk often dislocated the joints of arms and shoulders. This was repeated once or twice. Cf. SCAVENGER’S DAUGHTER.
1587. HAKLUYT, Voyages, II. 253. It was told vs we should have ye STRAPPADO.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., ii. 4. ’Zounds, an I were at the STRAPPADO, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion.
c. 1603. HEYWOOD, A Woman Killed with Kindness [PEARSON, Works (1874), II. 141]. I ’d … Be rack’d, STRAPPADO’D, put to any torment.
1613. PURCHAS, Pilgrimage, 341. They vse also the STRAPPADO, hoising them vp and downe by the armes with a cord.
1622. FRANCIS MARKHAM, Five Decades of Epistles of Warre. STRAPPADO [enumerated with] gallow, gibbets, and scaffolds [which the Provost Marshall was bound to provide on occasion.]
1633. CALLOT, Misères. [In this work there is a sketch of a culprit suspended from a high beam, the executioner holding with both hands the end of one of four spokes which act like a wheel and lever for hoisting or lowering the culprit, the executioner’s right foot pressing against a lower spoke, his left foot on the ground.]
1688. RANDLE HOLME, Academy of Armoury, III. vii. 310. [Holme writes as though the STRAPPADO were still in use in the army] the jerk not only breaketh his arms to pieces, but also shaketh all his joynts out of joint; which punishment is better to be hanged, than for a man to undergo.
