ferule
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
noun
verb
noun
Etymology
Origin of ferule
1375–1425; late Middle English ferula, ferul ( e ) giant fennel < Latin ferula schoolmaster's rod (literally, stalk of giant fennel); replacing Old English ferele < Latin
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.
See Examples For:
A kind of miracle happened: the ferule of the teacher became the poet's magic wand.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yen picked up his ferule and hit it like a student.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
The scholars simply bar the front door, and amuse themselves in using the teacher’s ferule for a bat, and the Trimetrical Classic, or the Confucian Analects, for a ball.
From Village Life in China A Study in Sociology by Smith, Arthur H.
The same evil omens will likewise appear at the ferule end of his gold-knobbed walking-stick.
From The Pearl of the Antilles, or An Artist in Cuba by Goodman, Walter
Just then, the stern face of Mr. Ball, the master, appeared at the door; he rapped sharply with his ferule, and called: “Books, books, books!”
From The Hoosier School-boy by Eggleston, Edward
He has his volunteer Bodyguard of Tappe-durs, let us say Strike-sharps, fierce Patriots with feruled sticks; and Jacobins kissing the hem of his garment.
From The French Revolution by Carlyle, Thomas
The mouth-piece is made of a circlet of silk-grass, and the farther end is feruled with a kind of nut, forming a sight.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1 "Bisharin" to "Bohea" by Various
“I thank you, Mamie,” said she at last; and she stroked the little hand given to her so loyally for the sacrificial feruling, but she turned her eyes away.
From Miss Ashton's New Pupil A School Girl's Story by Robbins, Mrs. S. S.
For another full minute he stared down at the girl, but he apparently had no longer any thought of feruling her.
From A Busy Year at the Old Squire's by Stephens, C. A. (Charles Asbury)
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.
