Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Ferule
1.
A flat piece of wood, used for striking, children, esp. on the hand, in punishment.
Fer′ule
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Feruled
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Feruling
.] To punish with a ferule.
Webster 1828 Edition
Ferule
FER'ULE
,Noun.
1.
A little wooden pallet or slice, used to punish children in school, by striking them on the palm of the hand. [Ferular is not used.]2.
Under the Eastern empire, the ferula was the emperor's scepter. It was a long stem or shank, with a flat square head.FER'ULE
,Verb.
T.
Definition 2024
ferule
ferule
See also: férule
English
Noun
ferule (plural ferules)
- A ruler-shaped instrument, generally used to slap naughty children on the hand.
- 1850, Melville, White-Jacket, chapter 52
- 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.
- 1851, George Borrow, Lavengro, chapter 6
- 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; [...]
- 1876, Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, chapter 21
- His rod and his ferule were seldom idle now -- at least among the smaller pupils.
- 1850, Melville, White-Jacket, chapter 52
Translations
Ruler-shaped instrument
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Verb
ferule (third-person singular simple present ferules, present participle feruling, simple past and past participle feruled)
- (transitive) To punish with a ferule.
- I could cudgel a great lubberly delinquent of a boy […] but when it came to feruling a girl, […] my manhood rebelled. — William S. Woodbridge.