ferule
See also: férule
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin ferula.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfɛɹuːl/, /ˈfɛɹəl/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛɹəl
- Homophone: ferrule
Noun
ferule (plural ferules)
- A ruler-shaped instrument, generally used to slap naughty children on the hand.
- 1850, Herman Melville, “Something Concerning Midshipmen”, in White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers; London: Richard Bentley, published 1855, OCLC 41502660, page 258:
- He [a midshipman] lords it over those below him, while lorded over himself by his superiors. 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, chapter VI, in Lavengro; the Scholar—the Gypsy—the Priest. […], volume I, London: John Murray […], OCLC 1167545500, page 85:
- 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 [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, OCLC 1000326417, page 167:
- The schoolmaster, always severe, grew severer and more exacting than ever, for he wanted the school to make a good showing on "Examination" day. His rod and his ferule were seldom idle now—at least among the smaller pupils.
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Translations
ruler-shaped instrument
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Verb
ferule (third-person singular simple present ferules, present participle feruling, simple past and past participle feruled)
- (transitive) To punish with a ferule.
- 1862, William S. Woodbridge, Captain Paul's Adventure: A "Charcoal Sketch", Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine, 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 […] .
- 1862, William S. Woodbridge, Captain Paul's Adventure: A "Charcoal Sketch", Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine, Volume 15, page 72,
Related terms
- ferulary
Anagrams
- fueler, refuel