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definitions

frogmarch

[frog-mahrch, frawg-]

verb (used with object)

to force (a person) to march with the arms pinioned firmly behind the back.

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Nearby words

  1. frogged,
  2. frogging,
  3. froggy,
  4. froghopper,
  5. frogman,
  6. frogmouth,
  7. frogspawn,
  8. frogstool,
  9. frohman,
  10. frohman, charles

Origin of frogmarch

First recorded in 1930–35; frog1 + march1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for frog march

frogmarch

noun

a method of carrying a resisting person in which each limb is held by one person and the victim is carried horizontally and face downwards
any method of making a resisting person move forward against his will

verb

(tr) to carry in a frogmarch or cause to move forward unwillingly
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for frog march

frog march

also frog-march, 1871, a term that originated among London police and referred to their method of moving "a drunken or refractory prisoner" by carrying him face-down between four people, each holding a limb; the connection with frog (n.1) perhaps being the notion of going along belly-down. By the 1930s, the verb was used in reference to the much more efficient (but less frog-like) method of getting someone in an arm-behind-the-back hold and hustling him or her along like that.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper