/ · 1894 Brewer’s · B · Boots (an instrument of torture)
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They were made of four pieces of narrow board nailed together, of a competent length to fit the leg. The leg being placed therein, wedges were inserted till the sufferer confessed or fainted.
“All your empirics could never do the like cure upon the gout as the rack in England or your Scotch boots.”—Marston: The Malcontent.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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