Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Strappado
Strap·pa′do (străp·pā′dō), n.; pl. Strappadoes (#). [It. strappata a pull, the strappado, from strappare to pull, from Prov. G. strapfen: cf. G. straff tense, stretched.] A military punishment formerly practiced, which consisted in drawing an offender to the top of a beam and letting him fall to the length of the rope, by which means a limb was often dislocated. Shak.
Strap·pa′do, v. t. To punish or torture by the strappado. Milton.