Stocks
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
A contrivance in the nature of a large clamp, adapted to hold a man's legs, so that, when it was adjusted, the person sat in confinement. It was originally used to confine offenders for security, and afterwards by way of inflicting punishment of the same nature as that of the pillory, q. v. It is now obsolete.