badine

plural badines

1. A short, decorated switch or rod, carried by the fashionable in the 18th and 19th centuries.

   A badine, or switch, dangles in the hand of the beau, whose bare head is dressed with enormous curls, and a fore-top.

   1798, The Gentleman's Magazine (London, England) - Volume 83, page 4

   4 more examples

   Amidst all those shocking scenes the Due d'Orleans walked along the streets of Versailles, playing with a badine, smiling at the mob, and, in one instance, directed them with his hand which way to turn.

   1817, Montagu Pennington, Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, to Mrs. Montagu, Between the years 1755 and 1800

   Lafayette's Carriage, flaring with lights, rolls this moment… through the inner Arch of the Carrousel, — where a Lady shaded in broad gypsy-hat, ... stands aside to let it pass, and has even the whim to touch a spoke of it with her badine, — light little magic rod which she calls badine, such as the Beautiful then wore

   1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

   She had indeed issued from the palace in a plain gown and gipsy hat, carrying a badine, or slight stick, such as ladies then used.

   1883, Sarah Tytler, Marie Antoinette: The Woman and the Queen, page 167

   So one of the three, Badine, he said he had a badine with him that would wake all dead things. Even living things it would make die and then bring back with that badine.

   2007, Lee Haring, Stars and Keys: Folktales and Creolization in the Indian Ocean, →ISBN