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

Now, sir, if you are in no great hurry, and have a mind to travel in company with a martyr, just as soon as I am free of these bilboes, we'll take the road together.

From The Amateur Gentleman by Farnol, Jeffery

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

Soon another colonist felt the bilboes for “selling peeces and powder and shott to the Indians,” ever a bitterly-abhorred and fiercely-punished crime.

From Curious Punishments of Bygone Days by Earle, Alice Morse

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

My ankles had been freed from the bilboes before I was brought up, but when I was ordered to stand, I could not readily obey because of the continued numbness of my limbs.

From A Volunteer with Pike The True Narrative of One Dr. John Robinson and of His Love for the Fair Señorita Vallois by Bennet, Robert Ames