strappado
/straˈpɑːdəʊ
/ /straˈpeɪdəʊ/noun (plural strappados) (usually the strappado) historical
1A form of punishment or torture in which the victim was secured to a rope and made to fall from a height almost to the ground before being stopped with an abrupt jerk.In Japan, for example, torture was used from a very early date to extract confessions, and from the beginning of the Tokugawa period in the seventeenth century the Japanese seem to have used something very like the strappado....
- It is believed that Niccolò Machiavelli was subjected to this form of strappado.
- The strappado, also known as the pendulum, was one of the easiest and, therefore, one of the most common torture techniques.
1.1The instrument used for inflicting the punishment or torture of strappado.The Medicis regained power in 1512 with the help of Spanish troops, and Machiavelli was deposed from his public office, imprisoned and tortured with the strappado (a technique recently revived in Guantanamo)....
- The prisoner told lawyers he was tortured using the strappado, in which a prisoner is suspended from a bar with handcuffs.
- Well, we haven't electrocuted him, beaten him with poles or given him the strappado - but that can be remedied.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from French (e)strapade, from Italian strappata, from strappare 'to snatch'.