▪ I. scourge, n.
(skɜːdʒ)
Forms: 3–5 schurge, 3–6 schourge, scurge, 3–7 skurge, 4 schorge, 4–5 skourge, scowrge, 4–6 skorge, scorge, 6 scourdge, squorge, 7 skurdge, scurdge, 4– scurge.
[a. AF. escorge, escurge, related (the precise nature of the relationship is obscure) to OF. escorgiee (mod.F. écourgée) = It. scuriada, scuriata (earlier scoriata):—popular L. *excoriāta scourge, lit. strip of hide, f. late L. excoriāre to strip off the hide, f. ex- ex- + cori-um hide.
Another view is that the n. is a verbal noun from escorgier to scourge, and that this directly represents late L. excoriāre in the sense to skin by flogging (cf. hide v.). OF. had also a parallel form corgie n., an English adoption of which appears to occur in the following example:
13.. S.E. Legendary (MS. Bodl. 779) in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LXXXII. 410/107 Wit stauis & wit courgis he let hem bete so faste.]
1. a. 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 (see top n.).
The use as applied to a whip for a top still survives dial.: see E.D.D.
| a 1225 Leg. Kath. 1551, & beaten hire bare flesch & hire freoliche bodi mit cnottede schurgen. a 1300 Cursor M. 25542 Wit knotted skurges hard and lang. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 8445 (Kölbing) He laid on wiþ schourge & bad hir go. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxxviii. (Adrian) 41 And bad his tormentouris son bring Skurgis of senonis felly mad. 1382 Wyclif John ii. 15 And whanne he hadde maad as a scourge of smale coordis, he castide out alle of the temple. [So in most later versions.] a 1400–50 Alexander 1924 Laches me þis losengere..Þat I may him skelp with a skorge. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 147 Oon knelith doun, requerith of the tothir, Pleyn remissioun of oold cursidnesse, Bete with a scorge, took it with meeknesse. a 1500 St. Margaret 196 in Brome Bk. 113 They bete hyre with scowrgys stronge. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lxxxviii. 31, I wil vyset their offences with the rodde, and their synnes with scourges. 1567 Gude & Godlie Ball. 153 First I was betin lang, With scurgis scharp and strang. 1609 Bible (Douay) 3 Kings xii. 11 My father bette you, with scourges, but I wil beate you with scorpions. 1644 Symonds Diary (Camden) 47 Escocheons with severall bearings alluding to the passion, of the scourge, whip &c. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. vii. 83 Scourges of cords..made the blood flow from every part. a 1793 G. White Poem in Selborne (1854) 8 The happy schoolboy brings transported forth His long forgotten scourge, and giddy gig. 1842 Tennyson St. Sim. Styl. 177 Mortify Your flesh, like me, with scourges and with thorns. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus xxv. 11 The scourge's heavy branding. |
† b. A blow with a whip. Obs. rare—1.
| 1741 tr. D'Argens' Chinese Lett. xii. 74 The next Moment he called for Cords, to imitate the frowzy St. Dominic, who gave himself 300,000 Scourges every Week. |
2. fig. and in figurative context; chiefly, a thing or person that is an instrument of divine chastisement.
the Scourge of God (= L. flagellum Dei): a title given by historians to Attila, the leader of the Huns in the 5th century.
| 1382 Wyclif Isa. xxviii. 15 Scourge flowend [Vulg. flagellum inundans; 1611 the ouerflowing scourge]. c 1386 Chaucer Clerk's T. 1157 He..suffreth vs as for oure exercise With sharpe scourges of Aduersitee fful ofte to be bete in sondry wise. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 247, I am Athila, Goddes scourge [L. Ego sum Attila flagellum Dei]. c 1400 26 Pol. Poems 44 Þat sellen soules for temperal getyng, Þey maken skourges to here owe betyng. 1574 tr. Marlorat's Apocalips 32 The faithfull had neede of inuincible constancie and incredible pacience, that they may know them to be gods squorges, and the instrumentes of his wrath. 1611 Coryat Crudities 162 Came that Flagellum Dei that scourge of God into Italy, Attila, King of the Hunnes. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. III. xxxiv. 368 If Attila equalled the hostile ravages of Tamerlane, either the Tartar or the Hun might deserve the epithet of the Scourge of God. 1819 Shelley Cenci iii. i. 316 Mocking our poverty, and telling us Such was God's scourge for disobedient sons. 1925 D. H. Lawrence Reflections on Death of Porcupine 157 Attila, the Scourge of God, who helped to scourge the Roman world out of existence, was great with power. |
3. a. A cause of (usually, widespread) calamity. Applied, e.g. to a cruel tyrant, a warrior, a war, a disease that destroys many lives. b. One who ‘lashes’ vice or folly.
Primarily identical with the figurative sense 2; but used without conscious reference to divine chastisement.
| c 1535 Ld. J. Butler in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. II. 48 OConnor that evyr hath bene the oonly scourge of the Englishe pale..is his right hand. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 410 b, Marques Albert y⊇ scourge of priests. 1596 Spenser Sonn., Scanderbeg, The scourge of Turkes, and plague of infidels, Thy acts, o Scanderbeg, this volume tels. 1603 Florio Montaigne i. xxvi. 89 Glory and curiositie are the scourges of our soules. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. iii. 97 You haue bin a scourge to her enemies. 1726–46 Thomson Summer 1499 Raleigh, the scourge of Spain! 1727 Tindal Rapin's Hist. Eng. IV. 275 Though this terrible Scourge [the plague] had fallen no less heavy on France, Philip was making great Preparations to renew the War. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 60 The great Swift, that severe scourge of the vices and follies of his time. 1821–2 Shelley Chas. I, ii. 301 And I speak it not As loving parliaments, which, as they have been..The scourges of the bleeding Church, I hate. 1879 Walley (title) The Four Bovine Scourges: pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, cattle plague, tubercle (scrofula). 1882 ‘Ouida’ Maremma I. 23 He had the same temper as of old made the tyrants of Padova and Verona..the scourges of their generation. |
† 4. [After L. flagellum.] An offshoot of a vine or other tree, a sucker. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Isa. xvi. 8 The lordis of Ientiles hewen doun his scourges; vnto Iaser thei ful camen. c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 113 The squorges hie & graffes from the folde,..for fruitful let hem not be tolde. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. liv. 80 Beluedere..hath diuers small shutes or scourges. |
5. attrib. and Comb., as scourge-procuring, scourge-proof, scourge-tormented adjs.; scourge-crop [cf. scourge v. 3], the result of a method of cultivation which impoverishes land; † scourge-stick, a whip used with a child's top (also transf.); † scourge-top, a whip-top.
| 1842 J. Aiton Dom. Econ. (1857) 192 When a minister's incumbency is apparently drawing to a close, one *scourge crop after another is sometimes taken from a glebe. |
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 137 Wherefore did our Sauiour thunder forth such a terrible woe against the causers of offence, or discontent, but that it was the most heynous *scourge-procuring transgression of all others? |
| 1808 Coleridge Lett. (1895) II. 528 The ass's skin is almost *scourge⁓proof. |
| c 1500 World & Child (Roxb. Club) A ij b, I can with my *scorge stycke My felowe vpon the heed hytte. 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 297 Flagellum..: a scowrgesticke. 1662 J. T. Grim, Collier of Croydon 18, I am whipt up and down with the scourge-stick of Love. 1693 Locke Educ. §130 (1699) 243 But if they had a Top, the Scourge-stick, and Leather-strap should be left to their own making and fitting. |
| 1627 W. Hawkins Apollo Shroving Prol. 5 Prol... We play at our best game. Lala. What? Blow-point?.. Prol. No. Tomboy, no. Nor *scourge-top, nor Trusse, nor Leape-frog. 1888 Longman's Mag. XIII. 516 Scourge-tops, peg-tops and humming-tops were all patronised. |
| 1900 Swinburne Astræa Victrix 66 We loosed not on these knaves Their *scourge-tormented slaves. |
▪ II. scourge, v.
(skɜːdʒ)
Forms: 3, 6 scurge, (3 scruge), 3–4, 6 skurge, 4 schourge, (4–5 schoruge), 4, 6 skourge, skurge, 4–7 scorge, 5 sc(h)owrge, skorge, chorge, shorge, 5–6 skowrge, squo(u)rge, 3– scourge.
[a. OF. escorgier, either f. escorge scourge n. (which however occurs in AF. only), or directly repr. late L. excoriāre (see the n.).]
1. trans. To beat with a scourge; to whip severely, flog. Now rhetorical (cf. scourge n. 1).
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 5304 Hii nome him an scourgede him & suþþe naked him bounde To a tre. a 1300 Cursor M. 16398 Iesus..to scruge he taght þem til. Ibid. 19356 For þan wit suepes þai þam suang, And scurged sare, þai let þam gang. 1382 Wyclif John xix. 1 Therfore Pilat took thanne Jhesu and scourgide. c 1400 in Hampole's Wks. I. 203 Then Pilate comandede theyme þat he sulde be betyne & schorugede. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys i. 337 (Horstm.) The tormentours hyr shorgyd so cruelly That lyk as watyr in a ryuer So ran hyr blood owt plenteuously. Ibid. iii. 283 And anone she chorgyd was so cruelly That uerrey pete it was to behold & se. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 327 With ane hauthorne skurge thy self and dyng. 1530 Palsgr. 731/2, I squourge one with whyppys, je fouette. 1625 Peebles Charters, etc. (1872) 413 Item, to the man that scorgit Issobell Gray xiijs. 4d. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 291 They scourg'd the confessors of the Gospell. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 87 Our people did scourge him severely from head to foot. a 1873 Lytton Pausanias ii. i, Let him pass,..he will get scourged if he is too late. 1903 A. Smellie Men of Covenant (1908) I. ix. 167 It was his habit to scourge and afflict himself. |
b. With complementary adv. or phrase: To drive or force by or as by blows of a whip.
| 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 914 Till the wrauth, Which thou incurr'st by flying..scourge that wisdom back to Hell Which taught thee yet no better. 1744 Armstrong Art Preserv. Health ii. 18 This vital fluid [sc. the blood]..scourg'd for ever round and round, Enrag'd with heat and toil, at last forgets Its balmy nature. 1812 Landor Ct. Julian v. ii, How bitter is the tear that fiery shame Scourges and tortures from the soldier's eye. 1870 Bryant Iliad I. ii. 47 If I Shall fail to..send thee forth, Howling,..Scourged from the council with a storm of blows. |
c. In figurative context.
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. i. 4 Comets importing change of Times and States, Brandish your crystall Tresses in the Skie, And with them scourge the bad reuolting Stars. 1821–2 Shelley Chas. I, ii. 218 For the waves never menace heaven until Scourged by the wind's invisible tyranny. 1887 Times 11 Aug. 13/3 The great masted ironclads throb and shake..and their great screws scourge the water behind them. |
2. fig. To punish, chastise, correct (often said of God, with reference to Heb. xii. 6); to ‘lash’ with satire or invective; to afflict, torment; to devastate (a country) with war or pestilence.
| 1382 Wyclif Heb. xii. 6 Forsoth he scourgith euery sone that he receyueth. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love iii. ix. 74 So that goddes hand, whiche that merciably me hath scorged, herafter in good plite from thence merciably me kepe and defende. 1530 Palsgr. 707/1 God hath scourged the lande of Italye very sore in our tyme. 1540 ― Acolastus v. iii. Z j b, To seke out Pelargus agayne, which scourgeth or tourmenteth hym selfe with vnreasonable .i. endlesse cares. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 225 This house, and the whole Ile was scourged thrice within the space of twenty yeeres and a little more by the Danes. 1607 Dekker Wh. Babylon H 4, You shall with rods of iron scourge these treasons. 1799 Monthly Rev. XXX. 530 The wars that have scourged Europe since the treaty of Westphalia. 1835 Lytton Rienzi i. iii, That is the way one patrician always scourges the insolence of another. 1876 T. Hardy Ethelberta xlviii, God has got me in his power at last, and is going to scourge me for my bad doings. |
3. Sc. To exhaust the fertility of (land). Said of a crop; also of the agriculturist. Also absol.
| 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 166 Both crops scourge the ground. 1830 Kyle Farm Rep. 47 in Lib. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, A tenant..was unable to make the necessary outlays on his farm, and forced to scourge as far as he could. 1842 J. Aiton Dom. Econ. (1857) 55 He will find it to be his interest to scrouge every thing out of the land. 1888 J. Harrison Scot in Ulster vii. 111 Flax..is a crop which scourges the ground. |
4. Comb. † scourgemutton (lit. a scourger of sheep), one who is irrationally cruel.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 181 b, This cruell scourgemotton [orig. Orbilius] weried throughly w{supt} whippyng poore Luther miserably,..doth now at the length hyde his rod. Ibid. 385 This cruell scourgemutton. |