third degree

A method of severe grilling used to extract information from an arrested suspect.

"Why give me the third degree?" he asked indignantly. "All I did was come home late because I had a drink with my friends."

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Source: A Dictionary of American Idioms

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to a degree

[to a degree] {adv. phr.} 1. {Chiefly British} Very; to a large extent. * /In some things I am ignorant to a degree./ 2. Somewhat; slightly; in a small way; […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

to the nth degree

[to the nth degree] {adv. phr.} To the greatest degree possible; extremely; very much so. * /Scales must be accurate to the nth degree./ * /His choice of words was […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

nth

[nth] See: [TO THE NTH DEGREE]. A Dictionary of American Idioms

degree

[degree] See: [TO A DEGREE], [TO THE NTH DEGREE]. A Dictionary of American Idioms

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