Definition of "cangue" []

• A heavy wooden yoke borne on the shoulders and enclosing the neck and arms, formerly used in China for punishing petty criminals. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The priests are threatened with the cangue, or heavy wooden collar, and to be chained at the entrance of their"
• "But it is remarkably effective in a country with a long history of punishment by humiliation — think of the cangue, a rectangular slab around the neck, in pre-Communist times and dunce caps in the Cultural Revolution."
• "A third attempt was punished with two months in the cangue, a wooden framework fastened about his neck and hands, used as a portable pillory."