Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A whip consisting of nine knotted cords fastened to a handle, used in flogging.
Wiktionary
- n. A similarly constructed leather nine-tail whip, as used in British penal colonies and certain armies
WordNet 3.0
- n. a whip with nine knotted cords
Etymologies
- From cat + of + nine + tail, attested 1695. (Wiktionary)
- So called because it leaves marks like the scratches of a cat. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“That is at football, by the way, not just the nation's game but its sackcloth and ashes, its cat-o'-nine-tails, its hemlock on the bedside table.”
The Guardian: Wales join the queue to give England's divine right a real kicking | Kevin Mitchell
“In medieval prisons, inmates were punished with a device called a "cat-o'-nine-tails" -- a whip made of nine knotted thongs of cord designed to lacerate the skin and cause intense pain.”
The Huffington Post: How Does Ringling Bros. Make Elephants Do That?
“In the hour President Obama spent at the podium in the East Room this week holding a news conference on the Gulf oil spill, he practiced every form of self-flagellation short of bringing out a cat-o'-nine-tails.”
The Washington Post: Obama's oil spill response: Too much culpability, too much passivity
“The trunk was built like a cat-o'-nine-tails; it held a bayoneted rifle.”
“If Apple represents the shiny, happy future of the tech industry, it also looks a lot like our cat-o'-nine-tails past.”
Wired: How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong
“This was 1987, north of the Arctic Circle, on the Kola Peninsula, where winter gales blew off the Barents Sea, whipping the port like a cat-o'-nine-tails made of ice.”
“As a female student volunteer stood facing the blackboard, and 24 Columbians watched, a lecturer who identified himself only as Dov flogged her with whips, rubber hoses and a cat-o'-nine-tails.”
“Cat Pete (his name was not given him because he was silent and catlike in his grace, but because he had once been soundly whipped with a cat-o'-nine-tails) was very selective of his vicÂtims.”
“Why should he risk bruising his precious knuckles when he had a weapon as caustic as the contempt he brandished like a cat-o'-nine-tails?”
“The shadowy chamber was an Inquisitor's dream, appointed with a handsome torture rack, a barbed cat-o'-nine-tails, three pairs of rusty manacles bolted to the wall, and several other ominous meldings of metal and wood.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cat-o'-nine-tails’.
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Hyphen Nation
Terms with multiple hyphens, such as rent-a-crowd. Not intended to be a see-how-many-words-one-can-string-together-with-hyphens-used-adjectively sort of list.
much-talked-of, vis-à-vis, tête-à-tête, rope-a-dope, will-o'-the-wisp, dick-a-tuesday, will-in-the-wisp, jack-o'-lantern, jack-with-a-lantern, ear-to-ear, whack-a-mole, no-man's-land and 205 more...
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E pluribus
Interesting Plurals
cherubim, seraphim, culs-de-sac, adjutants-general, aides-de-camp, passersby, courts-martial, commanders-in-chief, fleurs-de-lis, knickerbockers glory, heirs apparent, billets doux and 97 more...
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Hyphenated Actual Words
These kind of stun me whenever I see them. Language is just so cool.
chuck-will's-widow, will-o-the-wisp, saw-whet, topsy-turvy, linsey-woolsey, ne'er-do-well, gung-ho, so-so, cul-de-sac, fleur-de-lys, service-berry, major-domo and 33 more...
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O'-ho
tam-o'-shanter, jack-o'-lantern, man-o'-war, will-o'-the-wisp, light-o'-love, cat-o'-nine-tails, hop-o'-my-thumb, tom o' bedlam, bess o' bedlam, john o' groats, five o'clock shadow, o'dark thirty and 25 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cat-o'-nine-tails.
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