taws

American  

[tawz, tahz] / tɔz, tɑz /

noun

Chiefly Scot.

plural

taws

1. a whip or leather thong used to drive a spinning top.

2. a leather whip having its tip divided into smaller strips, used to punish schoolchildren.

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Etymology

Origin of taws

1505–15; plural of obsolete taw < Old Norse taug rope; cognate with Old English tēag tie

Example Sentences

Marbles are divided into "taws," or well-made strong marbles with which you shoot, and "clays," or the ordinary cheap colored marbles at which you aim and with which you pay your losses.

From What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield

This prince took a pleasure in conversing with me, inquiring into the manners, religion, taws, government, and learning of Europe; wherein I gave him the best account I was able.

From Gulliver's Travels Into Several Remote Regions of the World by Balliet, Thomas M.

Also there were three glass alleys, two agate taws and thirty-eight commies.

From The Seeker by Wilson, Harry Leon

Nor is it to be obviated, we fear, by any expression of extra solemnity thrown into the pedagogical face, or even by the taking of places or the taws.

From Leading Articles on Various Subjects by Davidson, John

"You deserve the taws about your back, sirrah, to forget my sacred office so far as to speak so," said the minister.

From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Caine, Hall, Sir

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