Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The use of coercive and illegal methods by police to obtain a confession or information from a suspect.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun idiomatic
intensive rough interrogation in order toextract information or aconfession .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun interrogation often accompanied by torture to extort information or a confession
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Freemasonry - the intensive test to become a master mason.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word third degree.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
mialuthien commented on the word third degree
third degree – in police interrogation, originally torture, then colloquially an intensive rough interrogation to extract information or a confession – the term "third degree" being an ironic reference to the Masonic ritual which involves a (symbolic) moral interrogation and illustration that right overcomes wrong
July 14, 2008