Crossword clues for thumbscrew
thumbscrew
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Thumbscrew \Thumb"screw`\, n.
A screw having a flat-sided or knurled head, so that it may be turned by the thumb and forefinger.
An old instrument of torture for compressing the thumb by a screw; a thumbkin.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A screw that can be turned with the thumb and fingers 2 An instrument of torture used to crush the fingers
WordNet
n. instrument of torture that crushes the thumb
screw designed to be turned with the thumb and fingers
Wikipedia
The thumbscrew is a torture instrument which was first used in medieval Europe. It is a simple vice, sometimes with protruding studs on the interior surfaces. The victim's thumbs or fingers were placed in the vice and slowly crushed. The thumbscrew was also applied to crush prisoners' big toes. The crushing bars were sometimes lined with sharp metal points to puncture the thumbs and inflict greater pain in the nail beds. Larger, heavier devices based on the same design principle were applied to crush feet and ears.
Thumbscrew can mean:
- Thumbscrew (torture), a screwed device formerly used for torture
- Thumbscrew (fastener), a type of screw with a tall head and ridged or knurled sides, or a flat vertical head, intended to be tightened and loosened by hand
Usage examples of "thumbscrew".
No mood-qualifiers or tone-deepenings, no goatish grunts or frisky yelps and giggles, no props, brandy, brothel gear, thongs, thumbscrews, third parties.
He pulled a mask of smoke-blackened oily parchment over his face to protect his eyes, then felt for the lamp fixture and its thumbscrew, while Brother Kornhoer watched him nervously from below.
Affirming that the Supreme Court is not concluded by the finding of a jury in a State court that a confession in a murder trial was voluntary, but determines that question for itself from the evidence, the Justices unanimously declared that the Constitution proscribes lawless means irrespective of the end, and rejected the argument that the thumbscrew, the wheel, solitary confinement, protracted questioning, and other ingenious means of entrapment are necessary to uphold our laws.
The next morning the blackboard was present, fixed by thumbscrews within easy reach of the Captain's hand, and from it the boys were taught, with words and diagrams, the nature of sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant and cosecant, the relations between them, and their value in helping to find your position in a prodigious ocean, no shore, no landmark for ten thousand miles.
Us Catholics also had the Inquisition, that was the little dealie with the rack and the thumbscrews and all that stuff.
I mean if I'd called my old man he would have told them great, put him in solitary, give him the thumbscrews so Jack calls his father and it's there the next day and I mean he wasn't rich, like these other snotty kids whose old man pulls up in a Mercedes like mine where he scribbles a check to the alumni association and then he shows up at the hockey game.
Behind the closet doors, Jay found a rolling instrument cart, carefully hung with knives, pliers, thumbscrews, and other toys, even an antique dentist's drill, its bit still crusted with dried blood.
I'll let Finkle think he's turned the thumbscrews to get it, for why shouldn't he feel accomplished after all?
Just inside the entrance to the cathedral was a gift shop selling not only religious relics and postcards, but also flick knives, swords, guns, thumbscrews and racks.
There were also thumbscrews and an iron boot, as well as assorted whips.
Adjusting a thumbscrew at the mirror end, and thereby collapsing the tube together a bit, he resolved the blur into a chunk of ornamented window-frame with a lace curtain being sucked out of it, down at the other end of Charing Cross.
He sounded as if all he required was a red-hot poker and a couple of thumbscrews.
They might as well have been thumbscrews, pincers, and a red-hot poker, judging from his militantly upright attitude, evocative of expectant martyrdom.
For a while I thought she was shamming, but the thumbscrews and the baton on the soles of her feet wouldn't make her admit to being Ledora again.
And if anything interferes with my plan, you’ll both get thumbscrews and I’ll whip you till your eyeballs fall out.