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Glite Dictionary
to hang, draw and quarter

to hang, draw and quarter

1 9.9
To threaten or kill someone by hanging, cutting their body open and dividing it into four parts
  • idiom
  • Offensive
translation icon : ahorcar, destripar y descuartizar
  • Personally, I think we should hang, draw and quarter the little fucker.

Examples

  • Historically, the punishment for treason was to hang, draw and quarter the convicted traitor.

  • The politician's scandal caused many to demand he be hung, drawn, and quartered for his corrupt actions.

  • So rack me, flay me, hang, draw, and quarter me.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Some argue that public figures should be hung, drawn, and quartered for their dishonesty.

Synonyms

to draw and quarter
vsto hang, draw and quarter
  • Offensive
4 9.9

To kill someone by tying limbs to four horses and pulling them apart, or to punish very harshly

involves suspension, removal of organs, and cutting the body into four parts

Antonyms

to pardon
211 3.0

To forgive someone for a small mistake or rude act

How Severe

to hang, draw and quarter
  • Offensive
1 9.9
to execute
  • Formal
294 6.1
to punish
821 1.0
to criticize
701 3.3

Surface Forms

hang, draw and quarter infinitive

Morphology

hang, + draw + and + quarter

The phrase lists three literal actions — 'hang' (to suspend), 'draw' (to pull, historically to disembowel/pull apart) and 'quarter' (to divide into four) — connected by 'and', so a learner who knows these verbs can infer it describes an execution made up of those steps. Though archaic and sometimes used figuratively for severe punishment, the overall meaning is directly compositional from the constituent words and their sequence, making it accessible to a B1 learner who knows the components.

Etymology

Hang, draw and quarter comes from a real, brutal form of public execution long ago: the criminal was first hung, then drawn, meaning their insides were taken out, and finally quartered, meaning the body was cut into four parts. Because this image is so violent, the phrase now means 'to punish or attack someone very harshly'.