| 释义 |
Scavenger's daughter
Also Skevington's, Skeffington's daughter.
[From a jocular perversion of the name Skevington. See daughter 6 c.]
An instrument of torture (invented in the reign of Hen. VIII by Leonard Skevington or Skeffington, Lieutenant of the Tower), which (bringing the head to the knees) so compressed the body as to force the blood from the nose and ears. Also † Skevington's gyves, Skevington's irons.
1564in Coverdale Lett. Martyrs 686 marg., Thys Engine is called Skeuyngtons Giues, wherein the body standeth double, the head being drawen towardes the feete. 1580Rishton Diarium in Sanders De Schism. Angl. (1586) I i 5, 10 [Dec.] Thomas Cotamus & Lucas Kirbeus presbyteri, Scauingeri filiam ad vnam horam & amplius passi, ex quo prior copiosum sanguinem e naribus emisit. 1580–1in D. Jardine Use Torture Eng. (1837) 84 We have made triall of hym by the torture of Skevington's Yrons. 1604Jrnls. Ho. Commons I. 209/1 An Engine devised by Mr. Skevington, some time Lieutenant of the Tower, called Skevington's Daughters, or Little Ease. 1826W. E. Andrews Review Fox II. 369 One of the instruments of torture, called the Scavenger's daughter, employed in the Tower on Catholics. 1897Dict. Nat. Biog. LII. 325/1 Leonard [Skeffington]..the inventor of an instrument of torture, known as ‘Skevington's irons’ or ‘Skevington's daughter’. |