Bilboes

//ˈbɪlbəʊz// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An iron bar placed around the ankles of prisoners, and having sliding shackles. plural, plural-only

    "… me thought I lay Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes, rashly,"

Synonyms

All synonyms
bondbridlechaincollarcufffetter

Example

More examples

"… me thought I lay Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes, rashly,"

Etymology

Unknown. Purported to have been invented in Bilbao, Spain, yet the device's name predates the Spanish Armada that supposedly imported it.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.