drub
/drʌb
/verb (drubs, drubbing, drubbed) [with object]
1Hit or beat (someone) repeatedly: he was drubbed with tiresome regularity by his classmates...
- With each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break.
1.1 informal Defeat thoroughly in a match or contest: the Cleveland Indians drubbed Baltimore 9-0...
- In 1999, Crowley repeated the feat, this time drubbing Collins.
- Ben Franklin drubs Thomas Jefferson in the race to be our nation's foremost Renaissance man.
- Kandia's young reserves managed half that tally, drubbing their Empire opponents 5-1.
Origin
Early 17th century: probably from Arabic ḍaraba 'to beat, bastinado'. The first recorded uses in English are by travellers in the Near East referring specifically to the punishment of bastinado.