scavenger's daughter

noun

1. an instrument of torture that doubled over and squeezed the body so strongly and violently that blood was brought forth from the ears and nose: invented in 16th-century England.

Word History and Origins

Origin of scavenger's daughter¹

1555–65; scavenger, alteration of the name of its inventor, Leonard Skevington, Lieutenant of the Tower of London under Henry VIII

Example Sentences

Would Everybody, would Anybody, would you, wish to have lived in these days, whose emblems are cropped ears, pillory, stocks, thumb-screws, gibbet, ax, chopping-block, and scavenger's daughter?

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Scav′enger-bee′tle, a beetle which acts as a scavenger; Scav′enger-crab, any crab which feeds on decaying animal matter; Scav′engering; Scav′engerism; Scav′engery.—Scavenger's daughter, an instrument of torture by pressure with an iron hoop, invented by Sir W. Skevington, Lieutenant of the Tower under Henry VIII.

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The varieties of torture used at this period are fully described by Lingard, and consisted of the rack, the scavenger's daughter, the iron gauntlets or bilboes, and the cell called 'little ease.'

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On the framework of the rack sits the dwarf Xit, his limbs compressed in the grip of the frightful instrument called the “Scavenger’s daughter,” while Simon Renard, scarcely able to repress a smile, interrogates the comical little figure at his leisure.

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Leech, for instance, never produced anything which equalled Fagin in the Condemned Cell; The Murder of Sir Rowland Trenchard; Xit Wedded to the Scavenger’s Daughter; Jack o’ Lantern; or the reverie of the Triumph of Cupid.

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