knout
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
Etymology
Origin of knout
1710–20; < French < Russian knut, Old Russian < Old Norse knūtr knot
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.
The feat for which the National Committee commended him proved him to be a very knout and bastinado.
From Time Magazine Archive
The new, obnoxiously corporate-modeled, self-franchising Guggenheim may run on laptops, but what it really needs is an editorial pencil -- if not a knout.
From Time Magazine Archive
Moscow's long-suffering moviegoers glowed vindictively: the managers of the city's neighborhood moviehouses were at last writhing under the official knout.
From Time Magazine Archive
A ridiculous effigy of the Tsar with a knout in his hand now occupied the symbolic position and dominated the scene.
From The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism by Bertrand Russell
Spanberg, the other Dane, with his brutal tongue and constant recourse to the knout, who had gone to St. Petersburg to report on Japan, they cordially hated.
From Vikings of the Pacific The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward by Agnes C. (Agnes Christina) Laut
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
