thumbikinsthumbkinsn.
/ˈθʌmᵻkɪnz/, /ˈθʌmkɪnz/, U.S. /ˈθəməkɪnz/, /ˈθəmkɪnz/, Scottish English /ˈθʌmᵻkɪnz/, /ˈθʌmkɪnz/ Scottish.
With plural and singular agreement. = thumbscrew n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > torture > instrument or place of torture > [noun] > thumb-screw
pilliwinks1397
screw1663
thumbikins1684
finger stocks1686
finger pillory1801
thumb-lock1801
thumbscrew1816
1684 Reg. Privy Council Scotl. 23 July Whereas..ther is now a new inventione and Ingyne called the thumbekins..[the Lords] ordaine that when any persone shall be (by ther order) put to torture that the saids thumbekins or bootes or both be applyed to them.
1684 J. Lauder Hist. Notices 7 Aug. (Bannatyne Club) 548 Spence..is again tortured, and his thumbs crushed with pilliwincks or thumbikins: It's a new invention..discovered by Generalls Dalzeell and Drummond, they having seene them used in Musco[vy].
1690 in M. Napier Visct. Dundee (1860) II. 119 Nevil Pain..put to the torture of the thumbkins, and of the boot upon one leg before the thumbkins were taken off.
1715 Carstairs Let. in R. Wodrow Hist. Sufferings Church of Scotl. (1722) II. iii. viii. 389 The King's Smith was called in [on 5 Sept. 1684], to bring in a new Instrument to torture by the Thumbkins, that had never been used before... And under this Torture I continued near an Hour and a Half.
1793 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. V. 583 [Greenock] [He] has in his possession the identical thumbikins, with which the Principal [Carstairs] was severely tortured.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian ix, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. I. 251 Dread of bloody rope..pain of boots and thumkins.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1912; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1684