stretching hemp

Verb

stretch hemp (third-person singular simple present stretches hemp, present participle stretching hemp, simple past and past participle stretched hemp)

1. To be hanged.
   • If that fellow comes up here, he will see us; if we let him go the Johnnies will have us, and inside of twenty-four hours we will have been tried by a drumhead court-martial and the whole six of us sentenced to stretch hemp. Now, it is better, in my opinion, that he should stretch hemp than we six...1882, William Rattle Plum, The Military Telegraph During the Civil War in the United States

   Synonyms:

   wag hemp, dance on a rope, dance on nothing, dance the hempen jig, dance the Tyburn jig, dance upon nothing, dangle, hang, ride a horse foaled by an acorn, string up