bastinado

Meanings

nounbastinado (plural bastinadoes)

plural bastinadoes · alternative bastinade

A blow with a cudgel or stick.
[H]e is Sir / The moſt vnutterable covvard, that ere nature / Bleſt vvith hard ſhoulders, vvhich vvere only giuen him, / To the ruine of baſtinados.
c. 1607–1621 (date written), [Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher; Philip Massinger], The Tragedy of Thierry King of France, and His Brother Theodoret. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1621, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, signature E, recto
Beating the bare soles of the feet with a stick as a form of corporal punishment used primarily within prisons in various countries. The receiving person is required to be barefoot.

verbbastinado (third-person singular simple present bastinadoes, present participle bastinadoing, simple past and past participle bastinadoed)

present singular third person bastinadoes · participle present bastinadoing · participle past bastinadoed · past bastinadoed · alternative bastinade

transitiveTo punish a person by beating the bare soles of the feet, using a stick or truncheon.

nouna form of torture in which the soles of the feet are beaten with whips or cudgels

Similar

Broader

Also see

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

From Spanish bastonada (compare French bastonnade), from baston (“a stick or staff”).

More words from Spanish

Cite this entry

APA

bastinado. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bastinado

MLA

“bastinado.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bastinado. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bastinado,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bastinado.