strappado
noun, verb
strappado is a noun meaning “A form of torture in which the victim is hung from the ceiling by a rope attached to the hands, which are tied together behind the victim's back” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-T-R-A-P-P-A-D-O, and it appears about once in every 63 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of strappado is strappados or strappadoes.
What does strappado mean?
noun
- 1
A form of torture in which the victim is hung from the ceiling by a rope attached to the hands, which are tied together behind the victim's back.
verb
- 1
To torture by means of this device.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of strappado
- strappados plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- strappadoes plural
- strappadoing participle, present
- strappadoed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is strappado?
Strappado appears about once in every 63 million words in written English, the 249,463rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Strappado in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense form of torture:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does strappado come from?
From Italian strappato, from strappare (“to pull”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).