Etymology

Noun

1. A leather scourge (multi-tail whip), in the severe version known as 'great knout' with metal weights on each tongue, notoriously used in imperial Russia.
   • 1980: Spray and then slogging knouts of water hit the windows or lights like snarling disaffected at a mansion of the rich and frivolous. — Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers
   • 2005: The lieutenant gave him twenty strokes of the knout and stuck him in a cage for a few days till the snow was ankle deep. — James Meek, The People's Act of Love (Canongate 2006, p. 193)

Verb

1. To flog or beat with a knout.

   • 1992: Different, isn’t it? It’s called kava, by the way. The Fijians make it by knouting some root or other. — Will Self, Cock and Bull

Noun

1. knout, scourge
2. a flogging administered with such a multiple whip; a condemnation to suffer it