Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A whip consisting of nine knotted cords fastened to a handle, used in flogging.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A similarly constructed leather nine-tail whip, as used in British penal colonies and certain armies
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a whip with nine knotted cords
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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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.
Wales join the queue to give England's divine right a real kicking | Kevin Mitchell 2011
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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.
Ingrid Newkirk: How Does Ringling Bros. Make Elephants Do That? 2010
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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.
Obama's oil spill response: Too much culpability, too much passivity 2010
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The trunk was built like a cat-o'-nine-tails; it held a bayoneted rifle.
I Don’t Understand ? Jack Varnell 2010
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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.
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If Apple represents the shiny, happy future of the tech industry, it also looks a lot like our cat-o'-nine-tails past.
How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong 2008
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If Apple represents the shiny, happy future of the tech industry, it also looks a lot like our cat-o'-nine-tails past.
How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong By Leander Kahney 2008
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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.
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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.
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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.
College Hasn't Changed a Bit Since I Graduated Bill Crider 2006
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