break on the wheel
English
[edit]Verb
[edit]break on the wheel (third-person singular simple present breaks on the wheel, present participle breaking on the wheel, simple past broke on the wheel, past participle broken on the wheel)
- (transitive) To fasten (a criminal etc.) to a wheel and break his limbs or beat him to death.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 270:
- Despite protesting his innocence under torture, the sexagenarian father was condemned by the Parlement in March 1762 to be broken on the wheel, a fate which he bore with stoical fortitude.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to execute by beating
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