three-legged mare
noun1
UK, Historical A type of gallows consisting of a wooden triangle supported by three wooden legs, used for public hangings.
- The original three-legged mare was the Tyburn tree, which stood near a major road junction in Middlesex (present-day Greater London); another well-known example was the York Tyburn at Knavesmire, Yorkshire.
- They call a thing a three-legged mare, // Where they will fit each neck with a nooze, / Then with our beads to say our last prayer, // After all this to die in our shoes.c. 1882-98, Unknown author, “The Reading Skirmish”, in Francis James Child, editor, English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, page 247:
2 more examples
- Few, however, quitted the highway^([i.e., the life of the highwayman]) except for the "three-legged mare" at Tyburn, and the one- or two-legged mares of other places; and he held on his way.1908, Charles George Harper, Half-Hours With the Highwaymen: Volume 2, Outlook Verlag, published 2020, page 147:
- "Here, now," someone close to her carriage shouted, "let the bad 'un ride the three-legged mare."1982, Kathryn Atwood, Renegade Lady, Jove, page 2:
- Derived terms
- ride the three-legged mare
- Related terms
- two-legged mare, York Tyburn