drub

[druhb]

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verb (used with object), drubbed, drub·bing.

to beat with a stick or the like; cudgel; flog; thrash.

to defeat decisively, as in a game or contest.

to drive as if by flogging: Latin grammar was drubbed into their heads.

to stamp (the feet).

noun

a blow with a stick or the like.

Nearby words

Origin of drub

1625–35; perhaps by uncertain mediation < Arabic ḍarb blow, beating

Related formsdrub·ber, nounun·drubbed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for drub

Did ever any Tradesmen succeed, who attempted to drub Customers into his Shop?
Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume II (of 2)|Wiliam Cabell Bruce
On the other hand, we extend the meaning of drub, the Arabic word for bastinado, to a beating of any kind.
The Romance of Words (4th ed.)|Ernest Weekley
A hundred years ago it was the critic's pleasure to drub authors with cruel and unnecessary vigour.
Plum Pudding|Christopher Morley
And as for the men, what could they think, when the preacher could drub any six of them?
The Maid of Sker|Richard Doddridge Blackmore

Laura began to drub on the drawing-room window and nod and laugh from it.
The History of Pendennis|William Makepeace Thackeray

British Dictionary definitions for drub

drub

verb drubs, drubbing or drubbed (tr)

to beat as with a stick; cudgel; club

to defeat utterly, as in a contest

to drum or stamp (the feet)

to instil with force or repetitionthe master drubbed Latin into the boys

noun

a blow, as from a stick

Word Origin for drub

C17: probably from Arabic dáraba to beat

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

Word Origin and History for drub

drub

1630s (in an Oriental travel narrative), probably from Arabic darb "a beating," from daraba "he beat up" (see discussion in OED). Related: Drubbed; Drubbing.