peine forte et dure
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Law French, from Middle French peine forte et dure (“severe and hard punishment”).
Noun
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Giles_Corey.jpg/220px-Giles_Corey.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Le_Tour_du_Monde.jpg/220px-Le_Tour_du_Monde.jpg)
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.