Scragging

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. To seize and violently twist or wrench someone roughly; to hang or suspend by the neck often in a crude offensive manner; to handle or manipulate something with force and sudden jerks
2. The act of grabbing and pulling violently in a twisting motion; employing rough hanging especially as a form of execution or intimidation; forcibly shaking or controlling with abrupt movements
3. The process of forcibly grasping and contorting a person or object; the practice of suspending by the throat typically as a crude hanging; manipulating with sudden, harsh tugs or jerks

Etymology: "Scragging" is the -ing form of "scrag," and the verb's oldest sense was physical rather than violent in the modern way: to be a scrag was to be a scrawny, bony creature, and the word described a body that had shrunk to skin and bone. The noun "scrag" first named a lean person or animal, and by extension the thin, bony neck of a creature, which is why the verb later came to mean to wring or throttle that neck. The origin is uncertain. It may be related to Norwegian "skragg," meaning a lean person, and to dialectal Swedish "skragge," used of something old and torn, and possibly to Danish "skrog," meaning a hull or carcass. Some scholars also suggest a link to "shrink." These connections all point to the same image of something gaunt, withered, or worn down, and that image is the common thread that carried the word from skinny animals to the rough handling and hanging it describes today.

Synonyms: hanging, strangling, throttling, choking, necking