estrapades

Noun

estrapade (plural estrapades)

1. The rearing, plunging, and kicking actions of a horse trying to get rid of its rider.
   • Then one day she went riding on her favourite horse, Coco, without a helmet, and Kwango, her prize borzoi, leapt out in front of her, causing Coco to perform an estrapade which sent Vivienne flying and falling, landing head first on the concrete drive, killing her instantly.2001, Gerard Woodward, August, W. W. Norton, published 2008, page 175
2. A form of torture in which the victim is suspended on a rope that is attached to a pulley, over a fire and repeatedly let down close to the flames and hauled up away from them, in order to prolong the suffering.
   • He did not want to look at the rigid legs, at the feet hanging down nervelessly, with their bare toes some six inches above the floor, to know that the man had been given the estrapade till he had swooned.1904, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, Chapter 8