English
ferule
Noun

ferule (plural ferules)

  1. A ruler-shaped instrument, generally used to slap naughty children on the hand.
    • 1850, Melville, White-Jacket, chapter 52
      It is as if with one hand a school-boy snapped his fingers at a dog, and at the same time received upon the other the discipline of the usher's ferule.
    • 1851, George Borrow, Lavengro, chapter 6
      The master, who stood at the end of the room, with a huge ferule under his arm, bent full upon me a look of stern appeal; [...]
    • 1876, Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, chapter 21
      His rod and his ferule were seldom idle now -- at least among the smaller pupils.
Translations Verb

ferule (ferules, present participle feruling; past and past participle feruled)

  1. (transitive) To punish with a ferule.
    • 1862, William S. Woodbridge, Captain Paul's Adventure: A "Charcoal Sketch", Maturin Murray Ballou, Volume 15, page 72 ↗,
      And they were right in their assumption; I could cudgel a great lubberly delinquent of a boy […] but when it came to feruling a girl […] my manhood rebelled […] .
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