taws, tawse, n. Chiefly Sc.
(tɔːz)
Forms: 6 tawis, -es, 8 tawz, taz, 8– tawse, 9– taws.
[app. plural of taw n.1 2 (but evidenced much earlier); sometimes treated as a singular.]
1. A whip for driving a spinning top; esp. one made of a thong: see quot. 1892. (In quot. 1513 prob. pl. as in 2.)
| 1513 Douglas æneis vii. vii. 91 As..the round top of tre [wooden top] Hit with the twynit quhyp, dois quherle, we see..smyttin wyth the tawis dois rebound, And rynnis about, about, in cirkill round. 1892 Ballymena (Antrim) Observer (E.D.D.), Tawse, a few strips of leather tied to a shaft, used by boys in spinning tops. |
2. spec. An instrument of family or school discipline, used in Scottish and many English schools, consisting of a leathern strap or thong, divided at the end into narrow strips. Also transf. and fig.
In Sc. const. as plural, and in phrase a pair of taws.
| a 1585 Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 57 In thy teeth bring mee the tawes, With beckes my bidding to abide. Ibid. 571. 1719 Ramsay 2nd Answ. to Hamilton vi, I've kiss'd the tawz, like a good bairn. 1721 ― Lucky Spence ix, Vild hangy's taz ye'r riggings fast Makes black and blae. 1725 ― Gentle Sheph. v. iii. Prol., The tawz Was handled by revengefu' Madge. 1825 Brockett N.C. Words, Taws, a pair of taws, a leather strap used by schoolmasters for chastising children. 1825 Carlyle Early Lett. (1886) II. 329 A pedagogue called Fate; he is an excellent teacher, but his fees are very high, and his tawse are rather heavy. 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge (1863) 207, I took out the Tawse, and laid them on the closed Bible as a terror to evil doers. 1865 R. Chambers Ess. Ser. ii. 79 He carried a pair of short but impressive taws. 1892 Schoolmaster 31 Dec. 1165/2 Nottingham School Board. The Board authorises assistants to administer corporal punishment to the extent of a light stroke with a cane or tawse. Mod. Sc. Behave yoursel', or you'll get the taws. |
| Comb. 1865 G. Macdonald A. Forbes 49 The smile, which, in spite of pain, had illuminated his tawse-waled cheeks. 1885 ‘S. Mucklebackit’ Rural Rhymes 142 The ancient tawse-swasher pled weariness. |
Hence tawse v. trans., to chastise with the taws.
| 1790 Shirrefs Poems Gloss., Taz, to whip, scourge, belabour. 1883 Mem. A. Maclean 240 He was tawsed for his obstinacy. |