flogging, vbl. n.
(ˈflɒgɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. flog.
1. The practice or system of punishment by blows; an instance of it; a chastisement.
| 1758 Shenstone Let. to Graves 22 July, I have not only escaped a flogging [in the Monthly Review] but am treated with great civility. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xlvii, There's nothing like flogging to cure that disorder. 1851 H. Martineau Hist. Peace (1877) III. iv. xi. 92 The question of military flogging was brought forward year by year. |
2. In various uses.
a. The action of forcing up (a rent).
b. The flapping (of a sail).
c. Fishing. (See
flog v. 3).
d. Selling or offering for sale (see
flog v. 2 c).
| 1835 Marryat Pirate iii, Keep the sheet fast..or the flogging will frighten the lady. 1886 Q. Rev. CLXIII. 350 When a long day's flogging has been at last followed by a solitary rise. 1881 Daily News 9 Sept. 2/1 The tenants were really unable to stand any longer the flogging of rents which they had managed to pay for so many years. 1919 War Terms in Athenæum 1 Aug. 695/2 ‘Flogging’, the illegal disposal of Army goods. 1935 ‘D. Hume’ Gaol Gates are Open 10 If a crook disposes of stolen property through a fence he is ‘fencing’, but if it is sold through any other channel it is ‘flogging’. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
flogging-block,
flogging-cove,
flogging-stake;
flogging-chisel, a large cold chisel used in chipping castings;
flogging-hammer, a small sledge-hammer used for striking a flogging-chisel.
| 1827 in Hansard Parl. Debates 12 Mar. XVI. 1126 Some of the men were brought out so frequently to be flogged, that they were known by the name of the *flogging-blocks. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. iii. (1876) 219 By good fortune [to] escape the flogging-block. |
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 886/2 *Flogging-chisel. |
| 17.. B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Flogging-cove, the Beadle, or Whipper in Bridewell. |
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 886/2 *Flogging-hammer. |
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, *Flogging stake, the whipping post. |
Hence
ˈfloggingly adv.| 1840 New Monthly Mag. LVIII. 527 A frown from Mr. Innovate, floggingly put on, hastened his preparations. |