peine forte et dure
English edit
Etymology edit
Law French, from Middle French peine forte et dure (“severe and hard punishment”).
Noun edit
peine forte et dure (uncountable)
- (law, now historical) Crushing, an old form of punishment (torture) in which the prisoner's body was pressed with heavy weights.
- 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson:
- It was a solid structure, with massy door, sooner than open which in the absence of the ‘Dominie’, we would all have willingly perished by the peine forte et dure.