Brodequin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A laced leather boot of a kind once worn by actors or hunters ; a medieval device of torture that crushed the leg between wooden or iron boards
2. An old-fashioned laced boot reaching the calf, worn in past centuries ; a historical apparatus that clamped and crushed a victim's leg as punishment
3. A high laced boot of earlier times, often associated with theatre ; a leg-crushing torture device used in past eras to inflict agonizing pain

Etymology: "Brodequin" came into English from French, where it names a laced boot or buskin. The French word is the source, so the English term carries the same sense of a laced, boot-like covering for the leg and foot. Its history beyond French is not something the source records, so it is not traced further here.

Synonyms: buskin, boot