Thumbscrew

Thumbscrew, or THUMBIKINS, an instrument of torture for compressing the thumb, largely made use of by the Inquisition in Spain, and also occasionally used in England, when examination by torture was practised there. It was much in use during the brutal persecutions of the Covenanters in Scotland, and the famous Carstares (q.v.) was tortured thus for an hour and a half at Holyrood to obtain the secrets of the Argyll party.