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Thumbscrew   Listen
noun
Thumbscrew  n.  
1.
A screw having a flat-sided or knurled head, so that it may be turned by the thumb and forefinger.
2.
An old instrument of torture for compressing the thumb by a screw; a thumbkin.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Thumbscrew" Quotes from Famous Books



... army wrecked disobedient, disorganised; what, then, shall we do? Dumouriez is summoned to Paris, quick, shifty, insuppressible; while royalist seigneurs cajole, and, as you turn your legislative thumbscrew, king's veto steps in with magical paralysis. Yet let not patriotism despair. Have we not a virtuous Petion, Mayor of Paris, a wholly patriotic municipality? Patriotism, moreover, has her constitution that ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XII. - Modern History • Arthur Mee
... looked down on Aldebaran's wan face. It was as white and drawn as if he had been tortured by the rack and thumbscrew, so he made no answer for the moment. But when the fire was kindled, and they had supped the broth set out in steaming bowls upon the table, he ventured ...
— The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware • Annie Fellows Johnston
... heaven; But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the land 15 Very carefully and slow, Men of Bideford in Devon, And we laid them on the ballast down below; For we brought them all aboard, And they blest him in their pain, that they were not left to Spain, 20 To the thumbscrew and the stake, for the glory of ...
— The Ontario High School Reader • A.E. Marty
... from a saying quoted by Sir Edwin Pears in writing of certain Mahommedan sects: "The paths leading to God are as numerous as the breaths of His creatures; hence they consider religious toleration as a duty." Toleration does not mean simply abstinence from the thumbscrew and the rack or even the repeal of the Conventicle or the Five Mile Act, but appreciation of the religious opinions and practices of others, and due respect for them. Without formal union there may not only be peace and goodwill between bodies which keep ...
— Rebuilding Britain - A Survey Of Problems Of Reconstruction After The World War • Alfred Hopkinson
... not. Yet—I have a notion that I do. It would be a trifle easier to face the rack and thumbscrew, eh? Well, let's get it over. Possibly telling will ease you a bit, after all. It ...
— Mrs. Red Pepper • Grace S. Richmond


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