bilboes

/ ˈbɪlbəʊz /

plural noun

1. a long iron bar with two sliding shackles, formerly used to confine the ankles of a prisoner

Word History and Origins

Origin of bilboes¹

C16: perhaps changed from _Bilbao

Example Sentences

Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes.

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I'll give him a passport to Winchester bilboes.

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It is little to my credit that I took more interest in the fact that Bilbao used to supply Shakespeare's cronies with rapiers, under the name of "bilboes," than in statistics regarding those millions of tons of ore which its iron mines are now annually exporting to Great Britain.

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"They'll lie safely in the bilboes, even if we do not run them up to the yard-arm."

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It is so old and tumble-down that, more than once, when looking into some dark room on my way to the parlour or the Director's office, I almost expected to see the heavy chains, the thumb-screws, the rack, the bilboes and other instruments of a torture-chamber!

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