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Scourge

//skɜːd͡ʒ// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash. historical

    "He flogged him with a scourge."

  2. 2
    a whip used to inflict punishment wordnet
  3. 3
    A person or thing regarded as an agent of divine punishment. figuratively

    "And therfore 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, […]"

  4. 4
    a person who inspires fear or dread wordnet
  5. 5
    A source of persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble, such as a cruel ruler, disease, pestilence, or war. figuratively

    "Graffiti is the scourge of building owners everywhere."

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  1. 6
    something causing misery or death wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To strike (a person, an animal, etc.) with a scourge (noun etymology 1 sense 1) or whip; to flog, to whip. transitive

    "Hvng be yͤ heauens vvith black, yield day to night; / Comets importing change of Times and States, / Brandiſh your cryſtall Treſſes in the Skie, / And vvith them ſcourge the bad reuolting Stars, / That haue conſented vnto Henries Death: / King Henry the Fift, too famous to liue long, / England ne're loſt a King of ſo much vvorth."

  2. 2
    cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly wordnet
  3. 3
    To drive, or force (a person, an animal, etc.) to move, with or as if with a scourge or whip. transitive

    "So judge thou ſtill, preſumptuous, till the wrauth, / Which thou incurr'ſt by flying, meet thy flight / Seavenfold, and ſcourge that wiſdom back to Hell, / Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain / Can equal anger infinite provok't."

  4. 4
    whip wordnet
  5. 5
    To punish (a person, an animal, etc.); to chastise. figuratively, transitive

    "For a Patient and Thankful Heart in Sickness. Whom thou lovest, O Lord, him dost thou chasten, yea, every son that thou receivest, thou scourgest, and in so doing thou offerest thyself unto him, as a father unto his son. For what son is whom the father chasteneth not?"

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  1. 6
    punish severely; excoriate wordnet
  2. 7
    To cause (someone or something) persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble; to afflict, to torment. figuratively, transitive

    "And that the Remonſtrant cannot vvaſh his hands of all the cruelties exercis'd by the Prelats, is paſt doubting. They ſcourg'd the Confeſſors of the Goſpel, and he held the Scourgers garments."

  3. 8
    Of a crop or a farmer: to deplete the fertility of (land or soil). Scotland, figuratively, transitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”), and then either: * from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, escurge, or Old French scurge, escourge, escorge, escorgiee, escurge (modern French escourgée (“(archaic) whip made of leather strips”)), either: ** from Vulgar Latin *excoriāta (“strip of hide; a scourge”), from Late Latin excoriāre, the present active infinitive of excoriō (“to strip the skin from, to skin”), from Latin ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + corium (“skin; hide, leather”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”)); or ** from Latin ex- (intensifying prefix) + corrigia (“a whip”) (from corrigō (“to make right, correct; to reform”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to righten; to straighten”)); or * from Middle English scourgen (verb) (see etymology 2). Cognates Italian scuriada, scuriata

Etymology 2

From Middle English scourgen (“to whip, scourge; to afflict; to punish”), and then either: * from scourge (noun) + -en (suffix forming infinitives of verbs); or * from Anglo-Norman escorger, and Old French escorgier (“to whip, to scourge”), which are either: ** from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge (noun), etc., or Old French scurge, escourge (noun), etc. + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs); or ** from Vulgar Latin *excorrigiō, from Latin ex- (intensifying prefix) + corrigia (“a whip”); or ** directly from Late Latin excoriāre. See further at etymology 1.

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