ferule

English

Etymology

Latin ferula.

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

Ruler-shaped instrument

• French: férule (fr) f

Verb

ferule (third-person singular simple present ferules, present participle feruling, simple past and past participle feruled)

1. (transitive) To punish with a ferule.

   I could cudgel a great lubberly delinquent of a boy […] but when it came to feruling a girl, […] my manhood rebelled. — William S. Woodbridge.

Anagrams

• refuel