bilboes

British  

/ ˈbɪlbəʊz /

plural noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of bilboes

C16: perhaps changed from _Bilbao

Example Sentences

They were right glad that I should come down to you, and I gave them the word of a sailor that I would get you out of the bilboes if it might anyhow be done.'

From Micah Clarke His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir

It was a rule that none should speak to a man in the bilboes.

From On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. by Masefield, John

The Royal James hurried down the Chesapeake for a day and a night before Captain Bonnet gave orders to free the young prisoners below in the bilboes.

From The Black Buccaneer by Meader, Stephen W. (Stephen Warren)

Shakspeare mentions Hamlet thinking of a kind of fighting, "That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes."

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

Up with the prisoner, and let us get him safely into the bilboes.'

From Micah Clarke His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir