third-degree









third-degree


verb (used with object), third-de·greed, third-de·gree·ing.

  1. to subject to the third degree.

adjective

  1. of or relating to the third degree.

noun

  1. intensive questioning or rough treatment, especially by the police, in order to get information or a confession.
  2. the degree of master mason in Freemasonry.

noun

  1. informal torture or bullying, esp used to extort confessions or information

n.“intense interrogation by police,” 1900, probably a reference to Third Degree of master mason in Freemasonry (1772), the conferring of which included an interrogation ceremony. Third degree as a measure of severity of burns (most severe) is attested from 1866, from French (1832); in American English, as a definition of the seriousness of a particular type of crime (the least serious type) it is recorded from 1865. Intensive questioning or rough treatment used to obtain information or a confession, as in The detectives gave her the third degree, or Jim gave her the third degree when she came home so late. This term comes from freemasonry, where a candidate receives the third or highest degree, that of master mason, upon passing an intensive test. Dating from the 1770s, the phrase was transferred to other kinds of interrogation in the late 1800s.

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