Crossword-Solution: BRANK 5 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 11

Our Puritan ancestors must, we think, have seen some of the instruments of torture here described, and perhaps some of our great-great, etc., grandmothers may have been "ducked" or "silenced by a brank" many years before the sailing of the "Mayflower" or the "Lyon" or the "Angel Gabriel." ------------------------- It was once the custom in New England for a sermon to be preached before the prisoner upon the day of his execution.

The Pai Utes having no "F" in their language pronounced his English name "Brank," just as they called me "Bred." Their usual name for me was Untokarowits, derived from the dark red colour of my hair.

Afterwards _Calimachus_ an _Athenian_, embellished the Capitals of the Pillars, adding to them more Beautiful _Volutes_ or _Scrowls_, and more in number, enriching them with the Leaves of _Brank Ursine_ and Roses.

The brank may be described simply as an iron framework which was placed on the head, enclosing it in a kind of cage; it had in front a plate of iron, which, either sharpened or covered with spikes, was so situated as to be placed in the mouth of the victim, and if she attempted to move her tongue in any way whatever, it was certain to be shockingly injured.

With a brank on her head she was conducted through the streets, led by a chain, held by one of the town's officials, an object of contempt, and subjected to the jeers of the crowd and often left to their mercy.