cat-o'-nine-tails
Noun
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Noun
cat-o'-nine-tails
- (nautical) A whip having nine, often knotted, whipcords, formerly used for flogging as naval punishment. [from late 17th c.]
- 1695, William Congreve, Love for Love:
- If you should give such language at sea, you'd have a cat-o’-nine-tails laid cross your shoulders.
- 1695, William Congreve, Love for Love:
- A similarly constructed leather nine-tail whip, as used in British penal colonies and certain armies.
- French: chat à neuf queues
- German: neunschwänzige Katze
- Portuguese: chicote
- Russian: ко́шка
- Spanish: gato de nueve colas
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003