Meanings
plural tundings
- UKarchaicschool slangA caning.
1 more example
When all were thus assembled, and before the singers commenced, the culprit who had been sentenced to a tunding stepped out, pulled off his gown, and received from the hands of one deputed by the "prefect of hall," and armed with a tough, pliant ground-ash stick, a severe beating. I never had a tunding; but I have no doubt that the punishment was severe, though I never heard of any boy disabled by it from pursuing his usual work or his usual amusements. It was judiciously ordered by the "prefect of hall" for offences deemed unbecoming the character of a Wykehamist and a gentleman, and only for such.
1887, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, “At Winchester”, in What I Remember […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley and Son […], →OCLC, page 112
Origin
- Latintundo“to beat, strike”
- Englishtunding
Latin tundo (“to beat, strike”), + -ing.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
tunding. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tunding
“tunding.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tunding. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tunding,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tunding.
Source: tunding on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.