little-ease

(lit’l-éz), n. A state of discomfort or misery; hence, anything that causes uneasine ; specifically, an old name for a punishment causing bodily discomfort or pain, as the stocks or the pillory, or some especially uncomfortable part of a prison, as a very small cell. Welcome, sweet friend, to liberty of air,... How dost thou brook thy little-ease thy trunk? Middle ton, Family of Love, iii. 1. ‘Was not this fellow’s preaching a cause of all the trouble in Israel? was he not worthy to be cast in bocardo or little ease? Latimer, Sermons, fol. 105, b. (Nares.)