little-ease

English

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Noun

little-ease (plural little-eases)

1. (UK, idiomatic, slang, obsolete) The pillory, stocks, etc., of a prison.
   • 1550, Hugh Latimer, “Sermon XIV. Preached before King Edward the Sixth and His Most Honourable Council, in His Court at Westminster, in the Year 1550.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, →OCLC, page 277:

     [W]as not this fellovv's preaching a cauſe of all the trouble in Iſrael? VVas he not vvorthy to be caſt into bocardo or little eaſe?

     The spelling has been modernized.

References

“little-ease”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.