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To preserve from danger or punishment; to forbear to punish, injure, or harm; to show mercy to. Spare us, good Lord. Book of Common Prayer. Dim sadness did not spare That time celestial visages. Milton. Man alone can whom he conquers spare. Waller.

1. To place in a spread-eagle position, especially as a means of punishment. 2. being in a position with the arms and legs extended fully.

To break silence or secrecy for fear of pain or punishment; to speak; to confess. [Colloq.] If he be obstinate, put a civil question to him upon the rack, and he squeaks, I warrant him. Dryden.

torious profligate or criminal who has been branded; one who bears the marks of infamy or punishment. [R.] Bullokar.

s in which the feet, or the feet and hands, of criminals were formerly confined by way of punishment. He shall rest in my stocks. Piers Plowman.

A military punishment formerly practiced, which consisted in drawing an offender to the top of a beam and letting him fall to the length of the rope, by which means a limb was often dislocated. Shak.

To undergo punishment; specifically, to undergo the penalty of death. The father was first condemned to suffer upon a day appointed, and the son afterwards the day following. Clarendon.

Yielding compliant; not obstinate; submissive to guidance; as, a supple horse. If punishment . . . makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender. Locke.

Of punishment, or sentence of punishment.

Hence, the emblem of judicial vengeance or punishment, or of authority and power. He [the ruler] beareth not the sword in vain. Rom. xiii. 4. She quits the balance, and resigns the sword. Dryden.

; to allow to be imputed to, or inflicted upon, one's self; as, to take upon one's self a punishment. -- To take up the gauntlet. See under Gauntlet.

A punishment like that of Tantalus; a teasing or tormenting by the hope or near approach of good which is not attainable; tantalization. Addison. Is not such a provision like tantalism to this people Josiah Quincy.

ted as far below Hades as heaven is above the earth, and by later writers as the place of punishment for the spirits of the wicked. By the later poets, also, the name is often used synonymously with Hades, or the Lower World in general.

A leather lash, or other instrument of punishment, used by a schoolmaster. [Written also tawes, tawis, and tawse.] [Scot.] Never use the taws when a gloom can do the turn. Ramsay.

compensation for them, by way of composition, with the intent that the thief shall escape punishment.

Timber mare, a kind of instrument upon which soldiers were formerly compelled to ride for punishment. Johnson. -- Timber scribe, a metal tool or pointed instrument for marking timber. Simmonds. -- Timber sow. (Zoöl.) Same as Timber worm, below. Bacon. -- Timber tree, a tree suitable for timber. -- Timber worm (Zoöl…

Especially, severe pain inflicted judicially, either as punishment for a crime, or for the purpose of extorting a confession from an accused person, as by water or fire, by the boot or thumbkin, or by the rack or wheel.

Incurring, or subject to, the punishment of transportation; as, a transportable offense.

n the ground and united at the top, to which soldiers were bound when undergoing corporal punishment, -- now disused.

A cucking stool for the punishment of scolds.