knout

• I knew that tonight I was in for a long session with the knout, and that my hair shirt would be blooded come morning. —  Asimov'sSF,April-May2008
• The Parisians would have none of him except as a writer of feuilletons , who pleased them by the vigor with which he handled the knout, and tickled the levity of the million, who laughed while they saw the half-dozen or more victims flayed by merciless satire. —  Great Italian and French Composers
• Like Catharine II., her envied contemporary, she consulted no ties of nature in the disposal of her children,—a system more in character where the knout is the logician than among nations boasting higher civilization: indeed her rivalry with Catharine even made her grossly neglect their education. —  The Memoirs of Louis XV/XVI, entire
• Clearly, there are huge swathes of political opinion that have no outlet in Russia, and there are powerful segments of the ruling elite whose first instinct in a crisis is to reach for the knout. —  Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
• The knout was a large and strong whip, the lash of which consists of a tough, thick thong of leather, prepared in a particular way, so as greatly to increase the intensity of the agony caused by the blows inflicted with it. —  Peter the Great

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the Same Context