Deadly Never-Green

English

Alternative forms

• Deadly never green, Deadly Never Green, Deadly Never-green

Etymology

A play on the conceit that the Tyburn tree (the gallows at Tyburn) was a real tree—a lethal one, devoid of greenery.

Proper noun

Deadly never-green

1. Synonym of Tyburn tree.
   • 1867, Jacob Larwood, John Camden Hotten, The History of Signboards, John Camden Hotten, page 518:

     64. A view of the The Road to Paddington,^{[i.e., Edgware Road]} with a Representation of the Deadly Never Green that bears Fruit all the year round. This is Tyburn, with three felons hanging on it.

   • 1997, Brian P. Block, John Hostettler, Hanging in the Balance, Waterside Press, page 29:

     They made him^{[Jack Sheppard, highwayman]} a folk-hero, though eventually even he could not cheat the ‘Deadly Never-green’. After his execution he dangled on the gallows for 15 minutes before a soldier cut him down and the crowd tried in vain to resuscitate him.

   • 2016, Howard Engel, Lord High Executioner, Open Road Media, published 1996, unnumbered page:

     He was too young, of course, to remember Tyburn, although his father might have told him tales of the Deadly Never-Green or Three-legged Mare.