kurbash
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kur·bash
(ko͝or′băsh)n.
A whip, traditionally made of hippopotamus hide and used for punishment in parts of the Middle East, especially in Egypt from Pharaonic times until the early 1900s and in the Ottoman Empire.
tr.v. kur·bashed, kur·bash·ing, kur·bash·es
To punish with a kurbash.
[Ultimately (partly via French courbache) from Arabic kurbāj, from Turkish kırbaç, whip, probably alteration (perhaps in imitation of a cracking whip) of earlier *kırmaç; akin to Azerbaijani kırmaç, gırmanç : perhaps kır-, stem of kırmak, to break, break down (resistance), Old Turkic qırmaq, to cut, break + -maç, n. suff.; akin to Old Turkic -maç.]
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.
kurbash
(ˈkʊəˌbæʃ)n
(Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) a hide whip, used as an instrument of punishment
vb (tr)
(Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) to whip (someone) with a kurbash
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014