tawse
/tɔːz
/(also taws)
noun Scottish
A thong with a slit end, formerly used in schools for punishing children.The Hootsmon has not shrunk from criticising the Scottish education system and - from time to time - has taken a tawse to its naked hurdies....
- The school deserves praise for its initiative, and it's a far better means of improving behaviour than thrashing unruly children with the tawse.
- The use of the tawse, a then popular and widely accepted form of punishment in Scottish schools, did not infringe the European Convention.
Origin
Early 16th century (denoting a whip for driving a spinning top): apparently the plural of obsolete taw 'tawed leather', from taw1.
Rhymes
- wear someone/thing out
- wear something out (also wear out)
- wear the silver fern
- wear the trousers
- wear thin
- weary
- wearying
- wearyingly
- weasand
- weasel
- weasel-faced
- weaselly
- weasel's snout
- weasel words
- weather
- weather balloon
- weather-beaten
- weatherboard
- weatherboarding
- weather bomb
- weatherbound
- weather chart
- weathercock
- weathered
- weatherfish