tawse
Britishnoun
verb
Etymology
Origin of tawse
C16: probably plural of obsolete taw strip of leather; see taw ²
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.
Photograph: George Eksts We were never given the tawse or leather strap, but we were always getting the dap.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 7, 2012
No tawse to chide, Nor apron-strings to hold young Ezra then: His turn had come; and he was cock of the midden, And no braw cockerel’s hustled him from it yet, For all their crowing.
From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
In his hand he bore a long piece of a bridle rein, and this he fashioned into a tawse in sight of the whole school.
From Harry Milvaine The Wanderings of a Wayward Boy by Gordon Stables
Even Robin and Jack had been in their day afraid of the mistress and her tawse.
From Allison Bain, or, By a Way she knew not by G. H. (George Henry) Edwards
The bright face suddenly fell, one could never aspire to be a hero until one had braved the master's tawse.
From The Silver Maple by Mary Esther Miller MacGregor
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.
