| 释义 |
▪ I. knout, n.|naʊt, nuːt|
Also 8 knoute, knowt, 8–9 knoot.
[a. French spelling of Russ. knut.]
A kind of whip or scourge, very severe and often fatal in its effects, formerly used in Russia as an instrument of punishment.
1716J. Perry State Russia 218 note, The Knout is a thick hard Thong of Leather of about three Foot and a half long, fasten'd to the end of a handsome Stick about two Foot and a half long, with a Ring or kind of Swivle like a Flail at the end of it, to which the Thong is fasten'd. 1753Scots Mag. Jan. 6/1 The Russian government has been rendered more mild, by an abolition of the severe punishment of the knout. 1780Gentl. Mag. Dec. 578/1 Death is often the consequence of a punishment apparently more mild, viz. the knoot. 1808R. K. Porter Trav. Sk. Russ. & Swed. (1813) II. xxviii. 20, I have been to witness the execution of the Knout, to a height of torture which very seldom is now inflicted. 1855Tennyson Maud i. iv. viii, Shall I weep if..an infant civilisation be ruled with rod or with knout?
▪ II. knout, v.
[f. prec.]
trans. To flog or punish with the knout.
1772–84Cook Voy. (1790) VI. 2162 At 16 years of age he was knowted, had his nose slit, and was banished to Siberia. 1863Sala Murderous Ischoostchik 91 One was knouted to death only the other day, at the top of the Nevski, for the murder of a German commercial traveller.
Hence ˈknouted ppl. a., ˈknouting vbl. n.
1851Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Wind. ii. 644 Hast thou found..No repose, Russia, for knouted Poles? 1887Daily News 8 Oct. 6/1 Happily M. Verestschagin, who paints a Russian hanging, did not paint a Russian knouting. |