hanged, drawn and quartered
English
Alternative forms
- drawn and quartered (in figurative sense)
- hung, drawn and quartered
Adjective
hanged, drawn and quartered (not comparable)
- Subjected to the death sentence previously passed on those guilty of high treason.
- (figurative) Savagely attacked, subjected to an attempt to destroy utterly.
- hanged, drawn and quartered by the press
- 2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39:
- One ASLEF representative believed: "We have been made to a degree the scapegoat of many politicians. We have been hanged, drawn and quartered by Dr Beeching in order that some people can prove the failure of public ownnership."
References
- Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 17th edition (2005), edited John Ayto (Widenfeld & Nicolson, →ISBN
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