1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, iv, 14. Laudanum, therefore, being unable to stop the health of our hero, which the fruit of hempseed, and not the spirit of poppy-seed, was to overcome.…
Verb (American).—To choke or strangle.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
To wag hemp in the wind, verb. phr. (old).—To be hanged. See Hempen Fever and Ladder.
1532. Sir T. More, Wks. [1557], folio 715. Tindall calleth blessing and crossynge but wagging of folkes fingers in the æyre, and feareth not (like one yt would at length wagge hempe in the winde) to mocke at all such miracles.
Hempen-bridle, subs. (old).—A ship’s rope or rigging. See Horse and Tree.
Hempen Collar (candle, circle, cravat, croak, garter, necktie, or habeas), subs. (old).—The hangman’s noose; a halter. Also Hemp, and the Hearty-choke. Cf., Anodyne neck-lace. See quot. 1595.
1530–95. Turbervile, Of Two Desperate Men. A man in deepe despaire, with hempe in hand, Went out in haste to ende his wretched dayes.
c. 1586. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv., 4. When the hangman had put on his hempen.
1594. Shakspeare, 2 Henry VI., iv., 7. Ye shall have a hempen candle then, and the pap of a hatchet.