sjambok

[ sham-bok, -buhk ]

noun
  1. (in southern Africa) a heavy whip, usually of rhinoceros hide.

verb (used with object)
  1. to whip with or as if with such a whip.

Origin of sjambok

1
1820–30; <Afrikaans s(j)ambok<Malay cambuk whip <Hindi cābuk

Words Nearby sjambok

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sjambok in a sentence

  • He would not; so Gideon left him tied up all night, promising him some more sjambok in the morning.

    Aletta | Bertram Mitford
  • They'll be here to-night, old De Wet says, and they're to come here and sjambok the Englishmen who've been talking too much.

  • Then came the sharp crack as of a sjambok wielded by a strong and well-accustomed arm.

    Charge! | George Manville Fenn
  • One tattered little boy of ten cracked his sjambok whip behind the bullocks.

    The War in South Africa | Arthur Conan Doyle
  • He got careless with his sjambok and flicked a tall Swazi warrior on a naked but important part of his anatomy.

    Adventures in Swaziland | Owen Rowe O'Neil

British Dictionary definitions for sjambok

sjambok

/ (ˈʃæmbʌk, in South Africa -bɒk) /


noun
  1. a heavy whip of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide

  2. a stiff synthetic version of this, used in crowd control

verb-boks, -bokking or -bokked
  1. (tr) to strike or beat with such a whip

Origin of sjambok

1
C19: from Afrikaans, from Malay samboq, chamboq, from Urdu chābuk

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