Word.ws English Dictionary

Duke of Exeter's daughter

Duke of Exeter's daughter proper noun: the rack (torture device).

Proper noun

the Duke of Exeter's daughter

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang) The rack (torture device).
    • If we hadn't lagged you when we had, they'd be stretching you now on the Duke of Exeter's Daughter where they racked Guy Fawkes, and you'd be bleating out everything you know and a lot you don't know.2022, Thomas B. Costain, For My Great Folly

Origin of Duke of Exeter's daughter

After Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, who served as constable of the Tower of London during the period when the rack was in use there.

Questions about Duke of Exeter's daughter

What does Duke of Exeter's daughter mean?
Duke of Exeter's daughter means the rack (torture device).
What part of speech is Duke of Exeter's daughter?
Duke of Exeter's daughter is a proper noun.

Words near Duke of Exeter's daughter in the dictionary

  1. Duke City
  2. duke in
  3. duke it out
  4. Duke of Burgundy
  5. Duke of Edinburgh
  6. Duke of Exeter's daughter
  7. Duke of Norfolk's Island
  8. Duke of York
  9. Duke of York Islands
  10. Duke of York's Island
  11. Duke of Yorks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Duke of Exeter's daughter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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