▪ I. ‖ kourbash, koorbash, n.
(ˈkʊəbæʃ)
Also corbage, courbash, -bache, coorbatch, kurbasch, cur-, kur-, korbash.
[f. Arabic qurbāsh, ad. Turk. qirbāch whip: cf. F. courbache.]
A whip made of hide, esp. that of the hippopotamus; an instrument of punishment in Turkey, Egypt, and the Sudan.
| 1814 W. Brown Hist. Propag. Chr. II. 40 A Corbage, which consists of a strap of the skin of the hippopotamus, about a yard in length. 1842 R. R. Madden United Irishmen I. xi. 337 Persons subjected to the torture of the ‘courbash’, in Damascus. 1866 E. Lott Harem Life Egypt II. 90, I soon after heard stifled cries, and a cracking of the courbache. 1884 J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 189 It is the peculiar mission of the hippopotamus to supply Kurbashes for the backs of the natives. 1885 Mrs. E. Sartorius In the Soudan viii. 129 An unlimited application of the koorbash. 1892 Nation (N.Y.) 11 Aug. 107/3 To plead urgently for the abolition of the kurbash. |
▪ II. ˈkourbash, ˈkoorbash, v.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To flog with the kourbash.
| 1850 Punch's Alm. for 1851. 7 He [the Persian Prince] had one of his attendants courbashed or flogged yesterday. 1884 Clifford Lloyd in Times 30 June 8/2 The Mudir had seized 77 sheikhs and other respectable men,..and had kourbashed and tortured them all. |