hang, draw and quarter

English

Etymology

From hang +‎ draw and quarter.

Pronunciation

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Verb

hang, draw and quarter (third-person singular simple present hangs, draws and quarters, present participle hanging, drawing and quartering, simple past hanged, drew and quartered or hung, drew and quartered, past participle hanged, drawn and quartered or hung, drawn and quartered)

1. (transitive, historical) To execute (someone) by hanging until nearly dead, followed by castration, disembowelling, beheading and quartering; especially as a punishment for high treason.
   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 171, about Egton Bridge:

     […] - and The Postgate, an inn named after a local priest, Father Nicholas Postgate, who was one of England's last Roman Catholic martyrs. He was hung, drawn and quartered at York in 1679 after baptising a child into the Roman faith.

2. (transitive, figurative) To savagely attack, or attempt to utterly destroy.

   Alternative form: draw and quarter

   hanged, drawn and quartered by the press

   • 2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39:

     One ASLEF representative believed: "We have been made to a degree the scapegoat of many politicians. We have been hanged, drawn and quartered by Dr Beeching in order that some people can prove the failure of public ownership."

References

• Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 17th edition (2005), edited John Ayto (Widenfeld & Nicolson, →ISBN