bastinade

English

Alternative forms

• bastinado

Etymology

From French bastonnade.

Noun

bastinade (plural bastinades)

1. A blow with a stick or cudgel.
2. A sound beating with a stick or cudgel, specifically: A form of punishment among the Turks, Chinese, and others, consisting in beating an offender on the soles of his feet.
   • 1775, Frank Moore, Diary of the American Revolution:

     Rudely forced to drink tea, Massachusetts in anger
     Spills the tea on John Bull—John falls on to bang her;
     Massachusetts, enraged, calls her neighbors to aid
     And give Master John a severe bastinade.
     Now, good men of the law, pray who is in fault,
     The one who begins or resists the assault?

Verb

bastinade (third-person singular simple present bastinades, present participle bastinading, simple past and past participle bastinaded)

1. To beat in this manner.

Anagrams

• abstained