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Glite Dictionary
to draw and quarter

to draw and quarter

4 9.9
To kill someone by tying limbs to four horses and pulling them apart, or to punish very harshly
  • idiom
  • /drɔː ənd ˈkwɔːrtər/
  • Offensive
translation icon : arrastrar y descuartizar
  • Brandreth, Ludlam, and Turner were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.
  • draw and quarter this man
  • hang, draw and quarter

They also the six leaders were drawn and quartered and King Court was gibbeted alive.

Examples

  • Have her drawn and quartered.

    Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991)

  • Lesser folk were hung, drawn and quartered, a less honourable means of execution.

  • I should have you drawn and quartered!

    Ratatouille (2007)

  • Perhaps after that, you can have me drawn and quartered.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Traitors are drawn and quartered, and their property taken by the Crown.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Unfortunately for them, they were discovered, seized, tortured, and executed—not, as one might assume, by burning, but by the equally grotesque spectacle of being hanged, drawn, and quartered.

    Blog text (31)

  • In medieval England, traitors were often hangdraw and quartered as a severe punishment.

  • He threatened to draw and quarter anyone who betrayed him in the business deal.

  • The king ordered that the traitors be draw and quartered in front of the castle.

Synonyms

to draw
vsto draw and quarter
  • NSFW
14 9.9

Pull a person apart by tying their limbs to horses

is the same execution but also used figuratively for extreme punishment
to quarter
vsto draw and quarter
  • Offensive
6 9.9

To kill someone by tying each limb to a horse and pulling them apart

is the same execution but also used figuratively for extreme punishment

Antonyms

to pardon
211 3.0

To forgive someone for a small mistake or rude act

How Severe

to draw and quarter
  • Offensive
4 9.9
to execute
  • Formal
294 6.1
to sentence
  • Specialized
321 6.3
to punish
821 1.0
to rebuke
  • Formal
26 6.9

Surface Forms

draw and quarter infinitive
drawing and quarter present participle
draws and quarter third person singular
drew and quarter past
drawn and quarter past participle

Morphology

draw + and + quarter

The phrase is compositionally transparent: a learner who knows 'draw' as 'to pull/drag' and 'quarter' as 'to divide into four' can infer an execution involving pulling apart into quarters. Though archaic and culturally specific, the meaning follows directly from the constituent verbs and is therefore likely comprehensible to a B1 learner familiar with those words.

Etymology

The phrase draw and quarter comes from a cruel medieval execution where prisoners were tied by each arm and leg to different horses and the animals pulled them apart. Because of that violent image, draw means 'to pull' and quarter means 'to cut into four parts', so the phrase is used today to say 'punish someone extremely severely'.