ferule

plural ferules

1. historicalA ruler-shaped instrument, generally used to slap naughty children on the hand.

   The master, who stood at the end of the room, with a huge ferule under his arm, bent full upon me a look of stern appeal; […]

   1851, George Borrow, chapter VI, in Lavengro; the Scholar—the Gypsy—the Priest. […], volume I, London: John Murray […], →OCLC, page 85

   4 more examples

   In his hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of justice reposed on three nails behind the throne, a constant terror to evil doers, […].

   1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC

   He [a midshipman] lords it over those below him, while lorded over himself by his superiors. It is as if with one hand a school-boy snapped his fingers at a dog, and at the same time received upon the other the discipline of the usher's ferule.

   1850, Herman Melville, “Something Concerning Midshipmen”, in White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers; London: Richard Bentley, published 1855, →OCLC, page 258

   The schoolmaster, always severe, grew severer and more exacting than ever, for he wanted the school to make a good showing on "Examination" day. His rod and his ferule were seldom idle now—at least among the smaller pupils.

   1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 167

   It is to keep a man awake, to keep him alive to his own soul and its fixed design of righteousness, that the better part of moral and religious education is directed; not only that of words and doctors, but the sharp ferule of calamity under which we are all God’s scholars till we die.

   1879 (date written), Robert Louis Stevenson, “Lay Morals”, in Sidney Colvin, editor, The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Edinburgh edition, volume XXI (Miscellanies, volume IV), Edinburgh: […] T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable for Longmans Green and Co.; […], published December 1896, →OCLC, page 348

   Synonyms: ferula

present singular third person ferules · participle present feruling · participle past feruled · past feruled

1. transitiveTo punish with a ferule.

   And they were right in their assumption; I could cudgel a great lubberly delinquent of a boy[…]but when it came to feruling a girl[…]my manhood rebelled[…].

   1862, William S. Woodbridge, Captain Paul's Adventure: A "Charcoal Sketch": Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine, Volume 15, page 72