keelhauling

plural keelhaulings

1. nauticalThe act by which a person is keelhauled.

   ‘We was a-talkin’ of keel-hauling,’ answered Morgan. / ‘Keel-hauling, was you? And a mighty suitable thing, too, and you may lay to that. Get back to your place for a lubber, Tom.’

   1883 November 14, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London: Cassell and Company, →OCLC

   1 more example

   The British, French and Dutch navies also practiced a grimmer form of choking. Sailors hung the victim from the lowest beam (the yardarm) of the main mast on one side of the ship and then, using pulleys, dragged him with ropes beneath the ship's keel to the other side of the long beam. This was called “keelhauling.” Keelhauling was not some ancient nautical torture. It originated with the modern navy. […] The British abolished keelhauling in 1720 and the French and Dutch in 1750. The practice continued unofficially for some years afterward, but there are no British records of keelhauling after 1770, and the last Dutch record was in 1806.

   2007, Darius Rejali, “Choking”, in Torture and Democracy, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 282

2. broadlyobsoleteslangA thorough thrashing or mauling; rough treatment.

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of keelhaul.