| 释义 |
‖ peine|peɪn|
[F. peine (pęn), pain.]
Pain, punishment. In phrase peine forte et dure († occas. partly anglicized): ‘severe and hard punishment’, a form of punishment, formerly inflicted on persons arraigned for felony who refused to plead, in which the prisoner's body was pressed with heavy weights until he pleaded or died; pressing to death. Also used allusively. (Cf. penance n. 5.)
1554Dial. on Laws Eng. ii. xli. 133 He shal haue paine fort and dure (that is to say) he shalbe pressed to death, and he shall there forfait his goods, and not his lands. [So 1721 St. German's Doctor & Stud. 277.] 1815Scott Guy M. xxxvii, I hope she has had the conscience to make her independent, in consideration of the peine forte et dure to which she subjected her during her life-time. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 416 The ‘peine forte et dure’..was not abolished till the middle of the 18th century. 1888Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) XXIII. 465/2 A case of peine occurred as lately as 1726. At times tying the thumbs with whipcord was used instead of the peine. |