hang, draw and quarter

present singular third person hangs, draws and quarters · participle present hanging, drawing and quartering · past hanged, drew and quartered · past hung, drew and quartered · participle past hanged, drawn and quartered · participle past hung, drawn and quartered

1. historicaltransitiveTo execute (someone) by hanging until nearly dead, followed by castration, disembowelling, beheading and quartering; especially as a punishment for high treason.

   […]- and The Postgate, an inn named after a local priest, Father Nicholas Postgate, who was one of England's last Roman Catholic martyrs. He was hung, drawn and quartered at York in 1679 after baptising a child into the Roman faith.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 171, about Egton Bridge

2. figurativelytransitiveTo savagely attack, or attempt to utterly destroy.

   hanged, drawn and quartered by the press

   1 more example

   One ASLEF representative believed: "We have been made to a degree the scapegoat of many politicians. We have been hanged, drawn and quartered by Dr Beeching in order that some people can prove the failure of public ownership."

   2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39