Phrase of the week


Give someone the third degree: An intensive, possibly brutal, interrogation. In Masonic lodges there are three degrees of membership. When a candidate applies for the third degree in a Masonic lodge, he is subjected to some activities that involve an interrogation more physically challenging than the first two degrees. This was the inspiration for the term being used by police as an interrogation technique. It was first referred to in a 1900 edition of Everybody’s Magazine.