cat-o'-ˈnine-tails, n.
Also 8 catanine-tails, cat-and-nine-tails, 8–9 cat-of-nine-tails, (9 cat with nine tails).
[see cat 8: prob. the name was originally one of grim humour, in reference to its ‘scratching’ the back.]
1. A whip with nine knotted lashes; till 1881 an authorized instrument of punishment in the British navy and army.
| 1695 Congreve Love for L. (L.) If you should give such language at sea, you'd have a cat-o'-nine-tails laid cross your shoulders. 1707 J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 208 He hung up the Catanine-tails. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxvii, To whip him up with the Cat-and-nine-tails. 1763 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 90/2 The plaintiff received 300 lashes with a cat o' nine tails. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xii. xxv, You would joyfully submit to the cat-and-nine-tails by way of a flapper to your dormant excitability. 1866 R. Chambers Ess. Ser. i. 97 The disgusting operation of flaying a man alive with a cat-o'-nine-tails. 1879 Daily News 14 Aug. 5/2 A fac-simile of a cat-o'-nine-tails..was exhibited. |
| fig. a 1726 Vanbrugh False Friend Prol. (T.) You awful cat-o'-nine-tails to the stage. |
| attrib. 1834 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) III. 99 What is your cat-of-nine-tails man, in a battle or a storm? |
2. A bulrush. (
U.S.).
| 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf. T. (1883) 246 It swayed back and forward like a cat-o'-nine-tails (bulrush) with a bobolink on it. 1883 Harper's Mag. Dec. 100/1 A mossy bank with overhanging ferns and cat-o'-nine-tails. |
Hence
cat-o'-nine-tail,
v. (
humorous).
| 1796 Southey in Life (1849) I. 272 Must man be cat-a-ninetailed by care, until he shields himself in a shroud? |