> as lemmas

1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Spread eagle, a soldier tied to the halberts in order to be whipped, his attitude bearing some likeness to that figure, as painted on signs.

a1791 F. Grose Olio (1792) 228 Should you be caught, you know the consequence—That the spread eagle is your certain lot.

1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. vii. 84 Mr. Jenkins desired the other men to get half a dozen foxes and make a spread eagle of me.

1844 Amer. Turf Reg. & Sporting Mag. Oct. Colts that..are not hurried too early in their work..will ably maintain their best pace in a good rally, without being overmarked, and made what is called ‘a spread-eagle’.

1871 J. A. Froude Table-talk Shirley 149 I suppose I shall as usual be made a spread-eagle by the Saturday [Review].

1882 Daily Tel. 12 Sept. 2/2 The iron-hard pressure of it pins you against the shrouds as if you had been made a spread-eagle.

1906 P. Egan Florida Campaign (Soldiers & Sailors Hist. Soc. of Rhode Island) 6th Series No. 10. 23 The other seven were confined in the guard house, put on a diet of bread and water, and made a ‘spread eagle’ of until some one would tell who killed the cow.

2003 B. Arnot Wear & Tear ii. ix. 142 Begin with your hands at your sides, then move them directly away from your sides until they are parallel to the ground, as if you were making a spread eagle.