Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Cat-o'-nine-tails |
Cat-o'-nine-tailsNoun1. A whip with nine knotted cords; "British sailors feared the cat". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Cat-o'-nine-tails A whip, first with three, then with six, and lastly with nine lashes, used for punishing offenders, and briefly called a cat. Lilburn was scourged, in 1637, with a whip having only three lashes, but there were twenty knots in each tail, and, as he received a lash every three paces between the Fleet and Old Palace Yard, Cook says that 60,000 stripes were inflicted. Titus Oates was scourged, in the reign of James II., with a cat having six lashes, and, between Newgate and Tyburn, received as many as 17,000 lashes. The cat-o'-nine-tails once used in the British army and navy is no longer employed there, but garotters and some other offenders are still scourged. Probably the punishment was first used on board ship, where ropes would be handy, and several ropes are called cats, as "cat-harpings," for bracing the shrouds, "cat-falls," which pass over the cat-head and communicate with the cat-block. etc. The French martinet (q.v.) had twelve leather thongs. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: Cat-o'-nine-tailsSynonym: cat (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Cat-o'-nine-tails |
| English words defined with "cat-o'-nine-tails": cat. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "cat-o'-nine-tails": Comb the Cat. (references) |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Egyptian tomb painting from 1450 B.C. showing officer with sounding pole Officer is telling crew to come ahead slow Engineers with cat-o'-nine-tails assuring proper response from engines. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Human Rights | Bahamas | Cat-o'-nine-tails are allowed at prisons but have not been used for several years. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Cat-o'-nine-tails" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Cat-o'-nine-tails" is used about 4 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 100% | 4 | 175,879 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "cat-o'-nine-tails"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | kamzhik me shumë fije. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | бич от девет връзки. (various references) | |
Chinese | 猫o' 九尾巴. (various references) | |
Czech | devítiocasá koèka. (various references) | |
Hungarian | kilencágú korbács. (various references) | |
Korean | 양이 o' 아홉 꼬리. (various references) | |
Manx | kipp nuy arbyllagh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | at-o'-nine-tailscay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | chicote (horsewhip, lash, quirt, scourge, whip). (various references) | |
Russian | кошка (cat, cat-o-nine-tails, grapnel, grapple, grappling iron, moggy, pussy cat, pussycat, pussy-cat). (various references) | |
Spanish | azote (lash, scourge, stripe, whip). (various references) | |
Swedish | niosvansad katt, dagg (dew, dewy). (various references) | |
Turkish | dokuz kamçılı kırbaç. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | кішка-дев'ятихвостка. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "'-a-a-c-e-i-i-l-n-n-o-s-t-t" | |
-3 letters: actinolites, alienations, atonalities, catenations, nationalise, nationalist. | |
-4 letters: actinolite, alienation, annalistic, anticlines, antisocial, cantilenas, catenation, citational, clintonias, escalation, intestinal, lactations, lineations, natalities, nicotianas, nonelastic, sanitation, solicitant, tonalities. | |
-5 letters: actinians, analcites, analities, anelastic, annotates, antialien, anticline, antinoise, atonalist, cantilena, caseation, cattaloes, citations, clintonia, coastline, coattails, cotenants, inactions, incitants, inelastic, insatiate, intonates, laciniate, lactation, laitances, lenitions. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Images: Photo Album | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Translations: Modern 8. Anagrams | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
