Meanings
- pluralplural onlyAn iron bar placed around the ankles of prisoners, and having sliding shackles.
… me thought I lay Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes, rashly,
c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, line 2505 (Folio 1, 1623)1 more example
The bilboes looked like handcuffs that went around the ankles. The prisoner lay flat on his back, in the dirt, his feet suspended in the air by a length of iron bar to which the bilboes were fastened.
2001, Glen David Gold, Carter Beats The Devil
Origin
Unknown. Purported to have been invented in Bilbao, Spain, yet the device's name predates the Spanish Armada that supposedly imported it.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
bilboes. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bilboes
“bilboes.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bilboes. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bilboes,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bilboes.
Source: bilboes on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.