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tar and feather

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Idioms, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
(jargon)tar and feather - (A sick contrivance from the Unix tar command and the Ku Klux Klan torture method) To create a transportable archive from a group of files by first sticking them together with tar (the Tape ARchiver) and then compressing the result. The latter action is dubbed "feathering" (purely for contrived effect) by analogy to what you do with an aeroplane propeller to decrease wind resistance, or with an oar to reduce water resistance; smaller files, after all, slip through comm links more easily.


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The millmen resolved to bestow public honors on Dominicus Pike, only hesitating whether to tar and feather him, ride him on a rail, or refresh him with an ablution at the town pump, on the top of which he had declared himself the bearer of the news.
A nigger rousted me out this mornin', and told me the people was getherin' on the quiet with their dogs and horses, and they'd be along pretty soon and give me 'bout half an hour's start, and then run me down if they could; and if they got me they'd tar and feather me and ride me on a rail, sure.
It persecutes a principle; it would whip a right; it would tar and feather justice, by inflicting fire and outrage upon the houses and persons of those who have these.
 
 
 
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