"three-legged mare" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "three-legged mares",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "three-legged mare (plural three-legged mares)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "ride the three-legged mare"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The original three-legged mare was the Tyburn tree, which stood near a major road junction in Middlesex (present-day Greater London); another well-known example was the York Tyburn at Knavesmire, Yorkshire.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "c. 1882-98, Unknown author, “The Reading Skirmish”, in Francis James Child, editor, English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, page 247:",
          "text": "They call a thing a three-legged mare, // Where they will fit each neck with a nooze, / Then with our beads to say our last prayer, // After all this to die in our shoes.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1908, Charles George Harper, Half-Hours With the Highwaymen: Volume 2, Outlook Verlag, published 2020, page 147:",
          "text": "Few, however, quitted the highway^([i.e., the life of the highwayman]) except for the \"three-legged mare\" at Tyburn, and the one- or two-legged mares of other places; and he held on his way.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1982, Kathryn Atwood, Renegade Lady, Jove, page 2:",
          "text": "\"Here, now,\" someone close to her carriage shouted, \"let the bad 'un ride the three-legged mare.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A type of gallows consisting of a wooden triangle supported by three wooden legs, used for public hangings."
      ],
      "id": "en-three-legged_mare-en-noun-~HWkxpES",
      "links": [
        [
          "gallows",
          "gallows"
        ],
        [
          "triangle",
          "triangle"
        ],
        [
          "hanging",
          "hanging"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(historical, UK) A type of gallows consisting of a wooden triangle supported by three wooden legs, used for public hangings."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "two-legged mare"
        },
        {
          "word": "York Tyburn"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "historical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "three-legged mare"
}

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "ride the three-legged mare"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "three-legged mares",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "three-legged mare (plural three-legged mares)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "two-legged mare"
    },
    {
      "word": "York Tyburn"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with historical senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The original three-legged mare was the Tyburn tree, which stood near a major road junction in Middlesex (present-day Greater London); another well-known example was the York Tyburn at Knavesmire, Yorkshire.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "c. 1882-98, Unknown author, “The Reading Skirmish”, in Francis James Child, editor, English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, page 247:",
          "text": "They call a thing a three-legged mare, // Where they will fit each neck with a nooze, / Then with our beads to say our last prayer, // After all this to die in our shoes.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1908, Charles George Harper, Half-Hours With the Highwaymen: Volume 2, Outlook Verlag, published 2020, page 147:",
          "text": "Few, however, quitted the highway^([i.e., the life of the highwayman]) except for the \"three-legged mare\" at Tyburn, and the one- or two-legged mares of other places; and he held on his way.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1982, Kathryn Atwood, Renegade Lady, Jove, page 2:",
          "text": "\"Here, now,\" someone close to her carriage shouted, \"let the bad 'un ride the three-legged mare.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A type of gallows consisting of a wooden triangle supported by three wooden legs, used for public hangings."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "gallows",
          "gallows"
        ],
        [
          "triangle",
          "triangle"
        ],
        [
          "hanging",
          "hanging"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(historical, UK) A type of gallows consisting of a wooden triangle supported by three wooden legs, used for public hangings."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "historical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "three-legged mare"
}