> as lemmas

c1480 (a1400) St. Euphemia l. 165 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 422 Betweine four stanis [he] gert hir lay, & pressit hir, to do hir pyne, as men dois grappis of þe wyne.

1526 R. Whitford tr. Martiloge 103 Saynt Eufemia..was after longe & harde prison..pressed w^t grete knotty rough stones..scourged..w^t thorny busshes tyll the skyn was rent.

1531 St. German's Secunde Dyaloge Doctour & Student (new ed.) xli. f. cv He shall be pressyd to dethe.

1604 G. Dugdale True Disc. Pract. E. Caldwell sig. B3 According to the Law, he was adiudged to be prest, receiuing his iudgement on the Saturday, to be executed on Munday following.

1675 Three Inhumane Murthers 6 The same day he was pressed, being very willing to dye.

1771 Ann. Reg. 1770 129/2 Conoway at first refused to plead, but being taken down and shewn the apparatus for pressing him to death, if he refused, he relented.

1839 W. H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard iii. ix The Press Room..obtained its name from an immense wooden machine kept in it, with which such prisoners as refused to plead to their indictments were pressed to death.

1884 Cent. Mag. Nov. 114/1 A man pressed to death for refusing to plead..excited less sympathy than is now felt for a galled horse or an over-driven ox.

1923 Musical Times 64 622/1 She was condemned..to be pressed to death, for having harboured a Roman Catholic priest.

2002 M. Fulbrook Hist. Theory vi. 98 In Salem, New England, in 1692, nineteen individuals were hanged and one was pressed to death for witchcraft.