Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A form of torture in which the victim is lifted off the ground by a rope attached to the wrists, which have been tied behind the back, and then is dropped partway to the ground with a jerk.
  • noun The apparatus employed in this method of torture.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A punishment or torture which consisted in raising the victim to a certain height by a rope and letting him fall suddenly, the rope being secured to his person in such a way that the jerk in falling would inflict violent pain.
  • To torture by the strappado.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To punish or torture by the strappado.
  • noun A military punishment formerly practiced, which consisted in drawing an offender to the top of a beam and letting him fall to the length of the rope, by which means a limb was often dislocated.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A form of torture in which the victim is hung from the ceiling by a rope attached to the hands, which are tied together behind the victim's back.
  • verb transitive To torture by means of this device.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a form of torture in which the hands are tied behind a person's back and they are lifted off the ground by a rope tied to their wrists, then allowed to drop until their fall is checked with a jerk by the rope

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of French strapade, from Old French, from Old Italian strappata, from strappare, to stretch tight, of Germanic origin.]

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Examples

  • During his trial, he smuggled out to his daughter from prison a letter telling her of his innocence no matter what he said publicly after torture by thumb-screws, leg-screws, and the infamous strappado that ripped his shoulders apart.

    Dan Agin: A Demon in the Head I: Madness and Murderous Violence 2009

  • “But thy ambition must go to sleep for a while, Scharfgerichter, for the stuff that came hither to-day is for dungeon and cord, or perhaps a touch of the rack or strappado — there is no honor to win on them.”

    Anne of Geierstein 2008

  • For the record, strappado -- the act of tying a prisoner's arms behind his back and hoisting him upwards -- is also known as a "stress position."

    Bob Cesca: Liveblogging The Republican Convention - Day Two 2008

  • Those who do the reverse expose themselves to a sound strappado.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Today, a torturer is likely to equip himself with non-specialized, dual-use items like a baseball bats, cables, iron pipes, pliers, sticks, and maybe a hook on the ceiling for the strappado (suspension by the wrists, tied behind the back).

    Russ Wellen: What Is It with Men and Torture? 2008

  • It crucifies worse than any tyrant; no torture, no strappado, no bodily punishment is like unto it.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • In Morocco he claims he underwent the strappado torture of being hung for hours from his wrists, and scalpel cuts to his chest and penis and that a CIA officer was a regular interrogator.

    Easter Lemming Liberal News 2006

  • The strappado as described by Smollett, however, is a more severe form of torture even than that practised by the Inquisition, and we can only hope that his description of its brutality is highly coloured.

    Travels through France and Italy 2004

  • He describes the ghetto (p. 171), the police arrangements of the place which he finds in the main highly efficient, and the cruel punishment of the strappado.

    Travels through France and Italy 2004

  • The garrucha or strappado and the garrotes, combined with the water-torture and the rack, represented the survival of the fittest in the natural selection of torments concerning which the Holy Office in Italy and Spain had such a vast experience.

    Travels through France and Italy 2004

  • From there he was sent in chains to Goa where they threatened to subject him to the strappado—the Inquisition’s answer to bungee jumping, where a man was dropped from a height attached to a rope.

    Before the East India Company | William Dalrymple William Dalrymple 2023

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