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Webster 1913 Edition


Ferule

Fer′ule

(? or ?; 277)
,
Noun.
[L.
ferula
: cf. F.
férule
. See
Ferula
.]
1.
A flat piece of wood, used for striking, children, esp. on the hand, in punishment.

Fer′ule

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Feruled
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Feruling
.]
To punish with a ferule.

Webster 1828 Edition


Ferule

FER'ULE

,
Noun.
[L. ferula, from ferio, to strike, or from the use of stalks of the Ferula.]
1.
A little wooden pallet or slice, used to punish children in school, by striking them on the palm of the hand. [Ferular is not used.]
2.
Under the Eastern empire, the ferula was the emperor's scepter. It was a long stem or shank, with a flat square head.

FER'ULE

,
Verb.
T.
To punish with a ferule.

Definition 2024


ferule

ferule

See also: férule

English

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

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.

Related terms

Anagrams