Wiktionary
hanging offense
n. (alternative spelling of hanging offence English)
Usage examples of "hanging offense".
Ambitious and apt at politics, he'd taken Tyrwhitt as a patron (for what services only his bed knew, but it was surely a hanging offense) and had secured himself a place in the house as a menial.
Many had to be stored in special inert-gas rooms and you had to don a p-suit to handle them, under the watchful eyes of librarians who thought dog-earing should be a hanging offense, but every volume in the institution was available for reference, right up to the Gutenberg.
Beloved, you startled me with the notion that bad manners could be judged a hanging offense.