sjambok

[ sham-bok, -buhk ]

/ ʃæmˈbɒk, -ˈbʌk /

noun

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

verb (used with object)

to whip with or as if with such a whip.

Nearby words

Origin of sjambok

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

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

Examples from the Web for sjambok

There was the sjambok I had forgotten still lying on the window sill.
Prester John|John Buchan
I exerted all my powers of persuasion to arrest the flight of my burghers; even bringing the sjambok into the argument.
Three Years' War|Christiaan Rudolf de Wet
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.
From Capetown to Ladysmith|G. W. Steevens
Sibijaan drove the mules and swung his sjambok without mercy.
Adventures in Swaziland|Owen Rowe O'Neil

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

a heavy whip of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide

a stiff synthetic version of this, used in crowd control

verb -boks, -bokking or -bokked

(tr) to strike or beat with such a whip

Word Origin for sjambok

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