Boot (torture)

Boots (an instrument of torture). 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 and hammered in, causing horrible lacerations and shattering the bones. This continued until the sufferer confessed or fainted.

There was also another variant, a metal boot where the leg was inserted. Then the boot could be heated over hot coals or boiling tar or liquid metals could be poured in. In the medieval times, the boot was one of the most feared methods of torture.

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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From E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898