walk the plank

Language: en

Meaning: (historical,alsofigurative)On anearlynavalvesselorpirateship: to beforcedtowalkoff theendof agangplank(aplankofwoodextendingoutwards from thesideof the vessel) andplungeinto theoceananddrown, used as amethodofkilling.Synonym:walk the gangplank[1788, [Francis Grose], “Walking the Plank”, inA Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, London:[…]S[amuel]Hooper,[…],→OCLC:Walking the Plank. A mode of deſtroying devoted perſons or officers in a mutiny on ſhip-board, by blindfolding them, and obliging them to walk on a plank laid over the ſhip's ſide; by this means, as the mutineers ſuppoſe, avoiding the penalty of murder.]1835, chapter XI, inBlackbeard. A Page from the Colonial History of Philadelphia.[…], volume II, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers,[…],→OCLC,page137:Wo unto the crews of such English vessels as now fell into his [Blackbeard's] hands! he showed them no mercy; they eitherwalked the plank, or the hatches were nailed down upon them, and they went down in the scuttled ship.1868,Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “Camp Laurence”, inLittle Women:[…], part first, Boston, Mass.:Roberts Brothers, published1869,→OCLC,page188:The Portuguese held his tongue like a brick, andwalked the plank, while the jolly tars cheered like mad. But the sly dog dived, came up under the man-of-war, scuttled her, and down she went, with all sail set, 'To the bottom of the sea, sea, sea,' where—1881–1882,Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Fall of a Chieftain”, inTreasure Island, London; Paris:Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883,→OCLC, part VI (Captain Silver),page283:How many it [the treasure] had cost in the amassing, what blood and sorrow, what good ships scuttled on the deep, what brave menwalking the plankblindfold, what shot of cannon, what shame and lies and cruelty, perhaps no man alive could tell.1889,Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Master’s Wanderings”, inThe Master of Ballantrae.[…], London; Paris:Cassell & Company,[…],→OCLC,page56:[I]t is quite a painful reflection how many whole crews we have made towalk the plankfor no more than a stock of biscuit or an anker or two of spirit.1911,J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “The Pirate Ship”, inPeter and Wendy, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Charles Scribner’s Sons,→OCLC,page212:Hook smiled on them with his teeth closed, and took a step toward Wendy. His intention was to turn her face so that she should see the boyswalking the plankone by one.[1915?], Daniel O’Connor, “The Pirate Ship”, inThe Story of Peter Pan: Retold from the Fairy Play by SirJ. M. Barrie, Toronto, Ont.: The Musson Book Company,→OCLC,page66:He seated himself on a chair covered with a white bearskin, waiting while the Boys, whose wrists were chained together, were dragged out of the hold and brought before him. Six of them, he said, were towalk the plankat once, but he would save any two who were willing to be cabin boys.1923January 5,Ralph D[elahaye] Paine, “Doubloons”, inSea Stories Magazine, volume III, number 5, New York, N.Y.:Street & Smith,→OCLC, chapter VII,page36, column 1:"Forward march!" commanded Dan. "Give me a lift, Max. His knees have begun to sag, the big kettle of mush! We'll throw him into the dory.""Aye, aye, admiral. Do we tie a weight to his feet, or does hewalk the plank?""He would look ornamental hanged at the yardarm, Max. Let's get him aboard the sloop first. Then we shall have to sail out of the bay with what wind there is and find another anchorage. We want no interference while we are prying the truth out of this festive beach comber."1953, Patrick Pringle, “On the Account”, inJolly Roger: The Story of the Great Age of Piracy, Mineola, N.Y.:Dover Publications, published2012,→ISBN:It has often been written that pirates commonly killed their prisoners, usually by the picturesque method of making them ‘walk the plank.’ This is untrue. I have ransacked official records, reports of trials, and much other documentary evidence without being able to discover a single case ofwalking the plank. I do not mean merely that I have not found an authenticated case. In all the contemporary literature on pirates I could not find even an accusation or suggestion that the practice was ever used. The very expression seems to have been invented many years after the Age of Piracy.2015April,Peter Filichia, “The Musicals”, inThe Great Parade: Broadway’s Astonishing, Never-to-be-forgotten 1963–64 Season, New York, N.Y.:St. Martin’s Press,→ISBN,page58:[Stephen] Sondheimand[Arthur] Laurentsdidn't give up. They decided that Fay's opening speech and song [in the musicalAnyone Can Whistle] were overkill and one had to go. In a move one wouldn't expect in a musical, "There Won't Be Trumpets"walked the plankwhile the speech stayed.; (idiomatic)To beforcedtoresignfrom apositionin anorganization.Synonym:walk the gangplankAfter he was caught selling company secrets, it’s not surprising they made himwalk the plank.1910,Ben[jamin] B[arr] Lindsey,Harvey J[errold] O’Higgins, “The Beast in the County Court”, inThe Beast, New York, N.Y.:Doubleday, Page & Company,→OCLC,page77:I forgot that I had been given the place as a "political reward." I was immediately reminded of it by the expectations of those political "workers" whom the Board of County Commissioners wished me to appoint to officers in my court.[…]When I refused to make a single clerk "walk the plank," their indignation was amazing.1964, William A. Keleher, “Judge Vincent and Grover Cleveland”, inMaxwell Land Grant: A New Mexico Item, 2nd edition, Albuquerque, N.M.:University of New Mexico Press, published1983,→ISBN,page137:[Grover] Clevelandstood pat and another "carpet bagger" [William A. Vincent, Chief Justice of the First Judicial District, Territory of New Mexico] hadwalked the plankto political exile so far as New Mexico was concerned.1985, Richard S. Sloma, “Section I: What is a Turnaround?”, inThe Turnaround Manager’s Handbook, Washington, D.C.: BeardBooks, published1999,→ISBN,page12:If, on the other hand, operating performance is poor to lousy, the COO [chief operating officer]walks the plankwhile the CEO [chief executive officer] accepts the resignation—which, by the way, is always for "personal" reasons, policy differences, or to pursue other (always unspecified) interests—with regret in varying degrees of intensity.2009,Taylor Branch,The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President‎[1], New York, N.Y.:Simon & Schuster,→ISBN:So why on earth would[Bill] Clintonshareanycredit with Republicans? Did heremembersummoning Democrats towalk the plankfor this? How could any presidentspiton their sacrifice and uphold the party cohesion to survive?

Examples:

EN: He made me walk the plank.
ES: Me hizo pasear la tabla.
EN: I'd have made that whole assembly walk the plank.
ES: Habría hecho caminar por la tabla a toda la asamblea.
EN: If one of you so much as budges an inch, I'll take you out to sea with me and make you walk the plank.
ES: El que empiece a molestar... se las verá conmigo.
EN: Get me a lifeboat. He'll make me walk the plank.
ES: Me hará caminar por el tablón.
EN: I think your partner is making me walk the plank.
ES: Creo que su socio me va a tirar por la borda.
EN: Swing me to the yardarm, batten me down the hatches, hoist me to the mizzenmast, make me walk the plank, throw me to the sharks. I did the singing.
ES: me giro a la verga, listón me las escotillas, me elevación al palo de mesana, me hacen caminar por la plancha, me tiran a los tiburones hice el canto.
EN: Unless you do, you'll walk the plank
ES: Pero quien no quiso
EN: He says we'll walk the plank if we don't.
ES: Él dice que deberemos saltar por la borda.
EN: The fellow ought to be made to walk the plank.
ES: Debería tomar una decisión.
EN: I know you'd walk the plank for him.
ES: Sé que te hubieras tirado por la borda por él.
EN: And you want me to walk the plank, So you can even the score?
ES: ¿Y quieres que me deje matar para vengarte?
EN: By thunder, thee will walk the plank yet.
ES: Por el trueno, aún caminarás por la tabla.
EN: You can't make me walk the plank, you dumbhead.
ES: No puedes hacerme saltar del trampolín, cabeza hueca.
EN: All right, Mr. Muttley for that, you shall walk the plank.
ES: Está bien, señor Patán por eso, caminará por la pasarela.
EN: Ye'll walk the plank for this.
ES: Los arrojare a los tiburones.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).

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