A scourge, whip.

A whip, lash. Now only rhetorical, with reference to the torturing of human beings, or to ascetic discipline. Formerly gen., e.g. in †top and scourge…

An instrument for flogging or beating, consisting either of a rigid rod or stick with a lash of cord, leather, etc. attached, or of a flexible…

A whip, scourge; also, a stroke, blow.

A scourge.

As transl. of Latin flagellum: A scourge. Obsolete.

A whip.

Hence used quasi-Historical as the name of a supposed ancient instrument of torture. Also as the name of a medieval weapon (see quot. 1870).

Used poetically and rhetorically = ‘whip, scourge’. literal and figurative. Also in phrase, †out of (a person's) lash: out of danger from (his)…

A scourge.

Such a strip used as an instrument of flagellation; also as the lash of a whip; hence spec. a whip-lash of plaited hide.

A whip; flogging with a whip. (In India.)

A kind of whip or scourge, very severe and often fatal in its effects, formerly used in Russia as an instrument of punishment.

A thong, whip, lash.

In humorously pedantic use: A whip, scourge.