thumbscrew
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈθʌmˌskru/
- NSFW
:
tornillo de pulgar
- Historical records reveal that devices like the thumbscrew were commonly used to extract confessions from prisoners.
- iron thumbscrew
Examples
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In ascending order of severity, they were: thumbscrews, the rack, and waterboarding.
Blog text (3) -
The judge warned that confessing under pressure could lead to the use of a thumbscrew during interrogation.
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You must have used a thumbscrew to get that out of him.
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A thumbscrew was used at the same time.
Fiction book (1996) -
We see him staring at various thumbscrews, a rack, a guillotine.
Fiction book (2001) -
Yet they're forever tightening the thumbscrews.
Blog text (22) -
Persons accused of state crimes very frequently were interrogated with the use of specific techniques, including the rack, the thumbscrew, and waterboarding.
Blog text (3) -
When I was a little boy in Indianapolis, I used to be thankful that there were no longer torture chambers with iron maidens, racks, thumbscrews, Spanish boots, and so on.
Academic text (2007) -
Keepers used torture devices including thumbscrews, iron collars, and other implements to maintain their authority over unruly or outspoken inmates.
Academic text (2007) -
During the medieval period, many torture methods included the menacing thumbscrew to elicit truth from suspects.
Synonyms
A device that crushes thumbs to punish or make people confess
Compounds
- Informal
Strong pressure you feel because other people want you to do well
How Painful
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Thumbscrew is simply thumb + screw, and historically it named a cruel tool that used a metal screw to squeeze a person's 'thumb' and cause pain. So, in older texts a thumbscrew refers to a torture device that hurt the thumb by tightening a screw.