draw and quarter

1. To hang and dismember someone. This phrase can also be preceded by the word "hang," as in "hang, draw, and quarter." This criminal is to be drawn and quartered, so once they pull him from the gallows, he'll be dismembered. Sire, I would encourage you to be polite to the king—his been known to draw and quarter his enemies before. A: "They would behead me for this?" B: "Oh no, they'd draw and quarter you first—so you would be dismembered, then beheaded."

2. To kill a prisoner by tying each limb to a horse and then sending each horse in a different direction. When he's drawn and quartered, the horses will pull his body apart in a gruesome scene. Is there any way you can escape the jail? If you're found guilty of treason, they'll draw and quarter you! Why are there horses here? Oh my God, they plan to draw and quarter me, don't they?

3. By extension, to punish someone severely. This usage is hyperbolic. Oh, she'll be drawn and quartered when Mom and Dad find out that she ran off to New York. I crashed the computer system for the whole company? Oh my gosh, they're going to draw and quarter me, aren't they? Mom will draw and quarter me if I show her report card with three failing grades on it!

*drawn and quartered

Fig. to be dealt with very severely. (Now fig. except in historical accounts; refers to a former practice of torturing someone guilty of treason, usually a male, by disembowling and dividing the body into four parts. *Typically: be ~; have someone ~. Fixed order.) Todd was practically drawn and quartered for losing the Wilson contract. You were much too harsh with Jean. No matter what she did, she didn't need to be drawn and quartered for it!