scourger


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scourge

 (skûrj)
n.
1. A source of widespread dreadful affliction and devastation such as that caused by pestilence or war.
2. A means of inflicting severe suffering, vengeance, or punishment.
3. A small whip used to inflict punishment.
tr.v. scourged, scourg·ing, scourg·es
1. To afflict with severe or widespread suffering and devastation; ravage.
2. To chastise severely; excoriate.
3. To flog.
[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman escorge, from Old French escorgier, to whip, from Vulgar Latin *excorrigiāre : Latin ex-, intensive pref.; see ex- + Latin corrigia, thong (probably of Celtic origin).]
scourg′er n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.scourger - a torturer who flogs or scourges (especially an official whose duty is to whip offenders)
flogger
torturer - someone who inflicts severe physical pain (usually for punishment or coercion)
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
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After receiving their grisly observations he concluded that floggings were sufficiently severe and where cases of leniency had occurred they were due to negligence or possibly corruption of the scourger. (18) No doubt Governor Bourke hoped the issue of convict discipline would abate after his response, but within a few months a convict revolt in the Hunter Valley reignited the conflict and paved the way for heated anonymous press battles by the opposing factions during 1834.
The politics of convict control in colonial New South Wales--'the notorious OPQ' and the clandestine press
Just before Sidney went up to Oxford in 1568, a Latin production of Sophocles' play under the expanded title Ajax Flagellifer (Ajax the Scourger) had been included in a high-profile royal progress visit to Cambridge.
"Goodlie anticke apparrell"?: Sophocles' Ajax at early modern Oxford and Cambridge
We see the scourger and the scourging, but we are not invited to revel in their mastery over their victim as we are in television programs like "The Sopranos." Instead we are pulled into a full experience of the existential fact of sacrifice.
The Passion's severe mercy
He asked McCleay for any specific instructions, for constables' staffs for his two constables and whether he needed a scourger. The infliction of lashes was carried out by a convict or ex-convict scourger, it was not the role of soldiers.
The British garrison in Australia 1788-1841: military supervision of convict work gangs. Part 2: the great roads

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