bastinado
Americannoun
plural
bastinadoes-
a mode of punishment consisting of blows with a stick on the soles of the feet or on the buttocks.
-
a blow or a beating with a stick, cudgel, etc.
-
a stick or cudgel.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
punishment or torture in which the soles of the feet are beaten with a stick
-
a blow or beating with a stick
-
a stick; cudgel
verb
Other Word Forms
- unbastinadoed adjective
Etymology
Origin of bastinado
1570–80; earlier bastanado < Spanish bastonada ( bastón stick ( baton ) + -ada -ade 1 )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They did this, wonderful to tell, without riots of protest or direct coercion of the bastinado or bayonet kind.
From Time Magazine Archive
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This steelyeyed, iron-jawed playboy of the Senate, this Voltaire-tongued bastinado of the uplifters, this Rabelais-reading Jeffersonian �this James A. Reed of Missouri�what a sizzling presidential campaign he would hammer out!
From Time Magazine Archive
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The feat for which the National Committee commended him proved him to be a very knout and bastinado.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Good heavens!" thought I, "I have suffered the bastinado and the bowstring, but both were merciful compared to this.
From The Pacha of Many Tales by Marryat, Frederick
"You shall see now," said Mole, sternly, "how I can despise such trivialities as your bastinado."
From Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks Book Number Fifteen in the Jack Harkaway Series by Hemyng, Bracebridge
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.