witch's bridle

plural witch's bridles

1. A scold's bridle.

   [It, unlike] witch's bridles, iron gags and thumbscrews, was first used in 1565. Tall, black, menacing, it was indisputably what a guillotine should be.

   2008 December 30, Philip Dodd, What's in a Name?: From Joseph P. Frisbie to Roy Jacuzzi, How Everyday Items Were Named for Extraor dinary People, Penguin, →ISBN, page 94

   2 more examples

   She was […] forced to wear a witch's bridle, which was fastened to her cell wall. After confessing to the crimes for which she was accused, Agnes Sampson was strangled to death and burned as a witch. At this point, I must warn you that I have reserved one of the[…]

   2023 April 3, Celeste Larsen, Heal the Witch Wound: Reclaim Your Magic and Step Into Your Power, Weiser Books, →ISBN, page 17

   ... witch's bridle was used as a torture device. Made from iron, it had spikes across the tongue and acted as a muzzle. As a method of humiliation the witch was attached to a chain and paraded around in public. The witch's bridle was also[…]

   2024 June 4, Flavia Kate Peters, Barbara Meiklejohn-Free, 2025 Witch's Diary - Northern Hemisphere: Seasonal Planner to Reclaiming the Magick of the Old Ways, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

2. A witch's stirrup (tangle in a horse's mane).

   ... witch's bridles, tangles in his mane . The chestnut's white blaze and mane were liabilities after dark, so Cas left him tethered in graze behind the pines.

   2006, Ralph Compton, John Edward Ames, Deadwood Gulch, Penguin, →ISBN, page 28

   1 more example

   "We've got some oats, and after I dry him off and rub him down, I'll take a currycomb to him and get those witch's bridles out of his coat. When you finish, Skye, I'll give you a hot meal." Krissy took Fargo's hand and gave it a promissory squeeze.

   2010 June 1, Jon Sharpe, The Trailsman #344: Six-Gun Gallows, Penguin, →ISBN