knout en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- [nʌʊt] (Canada)
- /naʊt/
Etymology
Via French knout from Russian кнут (knut), from Old East Slavic кнутъ (knutŭ), from Old Norse knútr (“knot in a cord”). Doublet of knot, node, and nodus.
Meanings
-
A leather scourge (multi-tail whip), in the severe version known as 'great knout' with metal weights on each tongue, notoriously used in imperial Russia.
Torture in a public school is as much licensed as the knout in Russia.
1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 5, in Vanity Fair:In Moscow, a Court carbonadoes / His ignorant serfs with the knout; / […] / But Eton has crueller terrors / Than these,—in the Windsor Express.
1832 October 27, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Derwent Coleridge, “Tales out of School. A Dropt Letter from a Lady.”, in The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed, […]. In Two Volumes, 4th edition, volume II, London: E[dward] Moxon, Son & Co., […], published 1874, →OCLC, page 217:The lieutenant gave him twenty strokes of the knout and stuck him in a cage for a few days till the snow was ankle deep.
2005, James Meek, The People's Act of Love, Canongate, published 2006, page 193:“I don't suppose a Russian convict under the knout is able to amuse the rest of his gang; and all our men-folk here are gilded convicts.”
1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 14:Spray and then slogging knouts of water hit the windows or lights like snarling disaffected at a mansion of the rich and frivolous.
1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| knouts | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Hypernyms
Translations (27)
ru кнут (kind of whip) · sv knutpiska (kind of whip) · ru ро́зга (kind of whip) · hu kancsuka (kind of whip) · sv knut (kind of whip) · eo knuto (kind of whip) · ru бич (kind of whip) · lv pātaga (kind of whip) · ru хлыст (kind of whip) · ru нага́йка (kind of whip) · cs knuta (kind of whip) · pl bicz (kind of whip) · ka როზგი (kind of whip) · pl nahajka (kind of whip) · pl knut (kind of whip) · ka მათრახი (kind of whip) · fr knout (kind of whip) · ka შოლტი (kind of whip) · fo knútakoyril (kind of whip) · de Knute (kind of whip) · cs bič (kind of whip) · ba сыбыртҡы (kind of whip) · es knut (kind of whip) · fi nagaikka (kind of whip) · io knuto (kind of whip) · nl knoet (kind of whip) · it knut (kind of whip)