Dictionary

Deadly Never-Green en · PROPN

Etymology

A play on the conceit that the Tyburn tree (the gallows at Tyburn) was a real tree—a lethal one, devoid of greenery.

Meanings

1. Synonym of Tyburn tree.
   • He was too young, of course, to remember Tyburn, although his father might have told him tales of the Deadly Never-Green or Three-legged Mare. 2016, Howard Engel, Lord High Executioner, Open Road Media, published 1996, unnumbered page:
   • They made him^([Jack Sheppard, highwayman]) a folk-hero, though eventually even he could not cheat the ‘Deadly Never-green’. After his execution he dangled on the gallows for 15 minutes before a soldier cut him down and the crowd tried in vain to resuscitate him. 1997, Brian P. Block, John Hostettler, Hanging in the Balance, Waterside Press, page 29:
   • 64. A view of the The Road to Paddington,^([i.e., Edgware Road]) with a Representation of the Deadly Never Green that bears Fruit all the year round. This is Tyburn, with three felons hanging on it. 1867, Jacob Larwood, John Camden Hotten, The History of Signboards, John Camden Hotten, page 518:

Forms

Synonyms

Tyburn tree