three-legged mare

Definitions

1. 1

   A type of gallows consisting of a wooden triangle supported by three wooden legs, used…

   A type of gallows consisting of a wooden triangle supported by three wooden legs, used for public hangings.

   • The original three-legged mare was the Tyburn tree, which stood near a major road junction in Middlesex (present-day Greater London); another well-known example was the York Tyburn at Knavesmire, Yorkshire.
   • They call a thing a three-legged mare, // Where they will fit each neck with a nooze, / Then with our beads to say our last prayer, // After all this to die in our shoes.
   • Few, however, quitted the highway^([i.e., the life of the highwayman]) except for the "three-legged mare" at Tyburn, and the one- or two-legged mares of other places; and he held on his way.
2. 2

   Synonym of Tyburn tree.

The neighborhood