plead the belly

English

Verb

plead the belly (third-person singular simple present pleads the belly, present participle pleading the belly, simple past and past participle pleaded the belly)

1. (historical) To attempt to use one's claimed pregnancy to avoid execution.
   • 1994, Leslie Scalapino, Defoe, Sun and Moon Press, →ISBN:

     She isn't hanged, while in jail, because she pleads the belly.

   • 2009, Shani D'Cruze, Louise A. Jackson, Women, Crime and Justice in England since 1660, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN:

     Over 25 per cent of the 463 women who were sentenced to death at the Old Bailey pleaded the belly between 1674 and 1699, and 38 per cent from 1700 to 1724, though a much smaller proportion did so later.

   • 2013, M.J. Trow, Maxwell's Chain, Allison & Busby, →ISBN:

     I was telling them only the other day about pregnant women avoiding the Drop in the eighteenth century by pleading the belly.