knout
/naʊt/ noun, verb
Forms knouts knouting knouted
- noun A leather scourge (multi-tail whip), in the severe version known as 'great knout' with metal weights on each tongue, notoriously used in imperial Russia.
- verb To flog or beat with a knout.
Synonyms
Etymology
Via French knout from Russian кнут (knut), from Old East Slavic кнутъ (knutŭ), from Old Norse knútr (“knot in a cord”). Doublet of knot, node, and nodus.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A kind of whip for flogging criminals, formerly much used in Russia. The last is a tapering bundle of leather thongs twisted with wire and hardened, so that it mangles the flesh.
- verb To punish with the knout Brougham.
Etymology [Russ. knut'; prob. of Scand. origin; cf. Sw. knut knot, knout, Icel. kn knot: cf. F. knout. See Knot.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “knout”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details