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sjambok

[sham-bok, -buhk]
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noun
  1. (in southern Africa) a heavy whip, usually of rhinoceros hide.
verb (used with object)
  1. to whip with or as if with such a whip.

Origin of sjambok

1820–30; < Afrikaans s(j)ambok < Malay cambuk whip < Hindi cābuk
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for sjambok

Historical Examples

  • Sjambok occurs in 17th-century accounts of India in the form chawbuck.

    The Romance of Words (4th ed.)

    Ernest Weekley

  • You are 'Mwanga's dog, and he will skin you with a sjambok soon.'

    Prester John

    John Buchan

  • There was the sjambok I had forgotten still lying on the window sill.

    Prester John

    John Buchan

  • "Ou Baas holds the sjambok in his hand when he talks to me," he said quite simply.

    Adventures in Swaziland

    Owen Rowe O'Neil

  • Sibijaan drove the mules and swung his sjambok without mercy.

    Adventures in Swaziland

    Owen Rowe O'Neil

British Dictionary definitions for sjambok

sjambok

noun
  1. a heavy whip of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide
  2. a stiff synthetic version of this, used in crowd control
verb -boks, -bokking or -bokked
  1. (tr) to strike or beat with such a whip

Word Origin

C19: from Afrikaans, from Malay samboq, chamboq, from Urdu chābuk
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012