Duke Humphrey
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
See HUMPHREY. The Duke of Exeter's daughter. A rack in the Tower of London, so called from a min- ister of Henry VI, who sought to introduce its use into England (1447).
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Duke Humphrey” mean?
See HUMPHREY. The Duke of Exeter's daughter. A rack in the Tower of London, so called from a min- ister of Henry VI, who sought to introduce its use into England (1447).
Is “Duke Humphrey” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.