Word of the Day

: April 12, 2010

frog-march

verb FROG-march

What It Means

: to seize from behind roughly and forcefully propel forward

frog-march in Context

When the patron became loud and belligerent, a hulking bouncer swiftly pinned him in a half nelson and frog-marched him out the door.

Did You Know?

There are a couple variations of the "frog's march" used to carry off an unruly person. The first involves carrying the person face downward by the arms and legs; when this is done by four people each holding a limb, the person's body resembles a stretched out frog. In another version the person is carried off by his collar and the seat of his pants, again giving the image of a frog but this time with limbs uselessly flailing about. These ways of moving a person gave us the verb "frog-march" in the late 19th century. The verb was also extended to cover more general, less frog-like, methods of removal, such as forcing the intractable individual forward with arms held in back or at the sides.