taws
Americannoun
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a whip or leather thong used to drive a spinning top.
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a leather whip having its tip divided into smaller strips, used to punish schoolchildren.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of taws
1505–15; plural of obsolete taw < Old Norse taug rope; cognate with Old English tēag tie
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.
This prince took a pleasure in conversing with me, inquiring into the manners, religion, taws, government, and learning of Europe; wherein I gave him the best account I was able.
From Gulliver's Travels Into Several Remote Regions of the World by Balliet, Thomas M.
And you may helpe them much by enlarging their rootes with the taws of the tree, whence you take them.
From A New Orchard And Garden or, The best way for planting, grafting, and to make any ground good, for a rich Orchard: Particularly in the North and generally for the whole kingdome of England by Lawson, William, fl. 1618
He is the most stupid of all my mother's children; he knows nothing of his book; when he should mind that, he is hiding or hoarding his taws and marbles, or laying up farthings.
From Isaac Bickerstaff, physician and astrologer by Steele, Richard, Sir
He went back to "taws," and "lagged for goes," with the others.
From The Court of Boyville by Lowell, Orson
"You deserve the taws about your back, sirrah, to forget my sacred office so far as to speak so," said the minister.
From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Caine, Hall, Sir
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.
