Showing Results for "bilboes"

See Also:

• plural of bilbo.

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

The bilboes were the first engine of punishment in Boston, and were used until 1639, and perhaps much later.

From Stage-coach and Tavern Days by Earle, Alice Morse

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

The bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together.

From Folk-lore of Shakespeare by Thiselton-Dyer, Thomas Firminger

One was a man who obstinately refused to go to meeting, and after being warned several times was clapped into the bilboes by the tythingman.

From Ben Comee A Tale of Rogers's Rangers, 1758-59 by Canavan, M. J. (Michael Joseph)