anodyne necklace, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

anodyne necklace n.

[ironic use of SE; such a necklace was orig. a form of medicinal amulet, peddled by charlatans and especially popular in the early 18C; based on the original definition of anodyne as soothing pain, in this context that of a misspent life; thus the phrase is a pun on ‘painkiller’]

the hangman’s noose.

1721		report on execution of Nathaniel Hawes cited in A. McKenzie Tyburn Martyrs (2007) 63: Once a Thief and always so, till Jack Ketch comes with his Anodyne Necklace.
1729		The life of Tho. Neaves title page: [of a public house name] printed for and sold by R. Walker, at the White-Hart, adjoining to the Anodyne-Necklace, without Temple-Bar.
1750		Poor Robin’s Almanac A4: Quere, whether Jack-Ketch’s Anodyne Necklace is not to be preferred before it [i.e. ‘Mr Waide’s Pill’) for those curing but some Disorders [...] this of his infallibility cures all without Loss of Time.
1766		O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield (1883) 140: May I die by an anodyne necklace, but I had rather be an underturnkey in Newgate.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1842		Bell’s Life in London 16 Jan. 1/4: May I die of an anodyne necklace, vulgo, a noose of hemp, if i did not again get the brute of a bean.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1894		Burnley Exp. 8 Aug. 4/8: A more imaginative name [i.e. for the noose] was ‘anodyne necklace’ [...] A writer of Elizabeth’s time says that an anodyne necklace was that which ‘light fellows merrily will call neckwede, or Sir Tristram’s knot, or St Andrew’s lace’.
1936		L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 200: Put on the hempen collar/cravat/necktie/necklace/anodyne necklace/choker/halter.