crapaudine

Meanings

1. A method of preparing fowl and poultry, where the back is split apart and the bird is flattened down the breast, looking somewhat like a toad; spatchcock.
2. A type of piquant sauce flavored with tarragon, lemon or vinegar, and other spices, that is traditionally served with a fowl cooked in the crapaudine style.
3. A form of torture in which the hands and feet are tied together behind the back, forcing the victim's body to bow, and sometimes accompanied by additional forms of torture, such as suspending the body by the point where the hands and feet are tied or beating.
4. An ulcer on the coronet of a horse, sheep, or donkey.
5. A toadstone.
6. A device for calibrating a pendulum consisting of a dilatable plate that produces an artificial tilt of a clinometer.
7. An heirloom variety of beet originating in France, and considered possibly the oldest beet cultivar.
8. The socket in which the pivot of a door turns.

Etymology

From French crapaudine.