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''scourge'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260606185347-00-⌔

scourge - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

scourge (plural scourges)

  • (weaponry, chiefly historical) A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash.
    • ✤ He flogged him with a scourge.
    • ✤ Yf they breake myne ordinaunces, and kepe not my commaundementes. I vil vyſet their offences with the rodde, and their ſynnes with ſcourges.1
    • ✤ My father layd vpon you a heauie yoke, vvhich I vvil make heauier: my father bette you vvith ſcourges, but I vvil beate you vvith ſcorpions.2
    • ✤ Up to coach then goes/Th’ observed Maid, takes both the scourge and reins,/And to her side her handmaid straight attains.3
    • ✤ [H]eaven-born truth,/And moderation fair, vvere the red marks/Of ſuperſtition’s ſcourge: […]4
    • ✤ Mortify/Your flesh, like me, with scourges and with thorns;/Smite, shrink not, spare not.5
    • ✤ Another strange manifestation of collective mental abnormality, though not directly connected with sorcery, was the Brotherhood of Flagellants. […] These men lashed themselves and each other unmercifully with knotted leather scourges until the blood ran, two or three times daily.6
  • (figurative)
    • A person or thing regarded as an agent of divine punishment.
      • ✤ 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, […]7
      • ✤ Againe not long after this euen ſhortly after the death of Alaricus came that Flagellum Dei that ſcourge of God into Italy, Attila King of the Hunnes, and ſpoyled the country vvith maruailous hoſtility in the time of the Emperour Martian.8
      • ✤ [I]f Attila equalled the hoſtile ravages of Tamerlane, either the Tartar or the Hun might deſerve the epithet of the Scourge of God.9
      • ✤ [H]e,/As he is wont, came to upbraid and curse,/Mocking our poverty, and telling us/Such was God’s scourge for disobedient sons.10
      • ✤ Yet true destructive power is power just the same as constructive. Even Attila, the Scourge of God, who helped to scourge the Roman world out of existence, was great with power. He was the scourge of God; not the scourge of the League of Nations, hired and paid in cash.11
    • A source of persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble, such as a cruel ruler, disease, pestilence, or war.
      • ✤ Graffiti is the scourge of building owners everywhere.
      • ✤ Thou ominous and fearefull Ovvle of death,/Our Nations terror, and their bloody ſcourge,/The period of thy Tyranny approacheth,/On vs thou canſt not enter but by death: […]12
      • ✤ [W]hat ſcourge for periury,/Can this darke monarchy afford falſe Clarence, […]13
      • ✤ Intemperance is the plague of ſenſualitie; and temperance is not her ſcourge, but rather her ſeaſoning.14
      • ✤ You haue bin a ſcourge to her enemies, you haue bin a Rod to her Friends, you haue not indeede loued the Common people.15
      • ✤ Cimon […] vvhoſe genius, riſing ſtrong,/Shook off the load of young debauch; abroad/The ſcourge of Perſian pride, at home the friend/Of every vvorth and every ſplendid art; […]16
      • ✤ On you it rests, whether I quit for ever the neighbourhood of man, and lead a harmless life, or become the scourge of your fellow-creatures, and the author of your own speedy ruin.17
      • ✤ […] I speak it not/As loving parliaments, which, as they have been/In the right hand of bold bad mighty kings/The scourges of the bleeding Church, I hate.18
      • ✤ [H]e had become a monster of cruelty, having in him the same temper as of old made the tyrants of Padova and Verona and Brescia the scourges of their generation.19
      • ✤ America’s poverty line is 4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 […]: people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.20

Verb

scourge (third-person singular simple present scourges, present participle scourging, simple past and past participle scourged) (transitive)

  • To strike (a person, an animal, etc.) with a scourge (noun etymology 1 sense 1) or whip; to flog, to whip.
    • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: whip
    • ✤ 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.21
    • ✤ Doe vve not vpon every good-friday, in ſundrie places, ſee a great number of men and vvomen, ſcourge and beate themſelves ſo long till they bruſe and teare their fleſh, even to the bones? I have often ſeene it my ſelfe, and that vvithout enchantment.22
    • ✤ […] I cauſed him to be brought to the Geers, vvith a Halter about his Neck, and be ſoundly vvhipp’d; and indeed our People did ſcourge him ſeverely from Head to Foot; […]23
    • ✤ For the waves never menace heaven until/Scourged by the wind’s invisible tyranny24
    • ✤ If they vote, they do not send men to Congress on errands of humanity; but while their brothers and sisters are being scourged and hung for loving liberty, while—I might here insert all that slavery implies and is,—it is the mismanagement of wood and iron and stone and gold which concerns them.25
    • ✤ “Nay, nay, let him pass,” said the young Chian, Antagoras; “he will get scourged if he is too late. Perhaps, like the Persians, Pausanias wears false hair, and wishes the slave to dress it in honour of us.”26
    • ✤ The more thou scourgest me, the deeper thou scourgest my religion into me; there is One Whose Love assuages the pain.27
  • To drive, or force (a person, an animal, etc.) to move, with or as if with a scourge or whip.
    • ✤ 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.28
    • ✤ Thou knowest not, and mayst thou never know,/How bitter is the tear that firy shame/Scourges and tortures from the soldier’s eye.29
  • (figurative)
    • To punish (a person, an animal, etc.); to chastise.
      • ✤ 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?30
      • ✤ He cals vs rebels, traitors, and vvill ſcourge/VVith haughtie armes this hatefull name in vs.31
      • ✤ You ſhall with rods of iron ſcourge theſe treaſons.32
      • ✤ [T]he purgatory is before the indulgence, the correction is before mercy. He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth; first he scourges him, and then he receives him; […] as long as his love lasts, he corrects us, and as long as he corrects us, he loves us.33
      • ✤ Look at thy followers and clients: are they not cutting the throats of humble men by way of vengeance for the crime of a great one? But that is the way one patrician always scourges the insolence of another.34
      • ✤ Upon how grievous iniquities consumed I myself, pursuing a sacrilegious curiosity, that having forsaken Thee, it might bring me to the treacherous abyss, and the beguiling service of devils, to whom I sacrific ed my evil actions, and in all these things thou didst scourge me! I dared even, while Thy solemnities were celebrated within the walls of Thy Church, to desire, and to compass a business, deserving death for its fruits, for which Thou scourgedst me with grievous punishments, […]35
      • ✤ God has got me in his power at last, and is going to scourge me for my bad doings—that’s what is seems like.36
      • ✤ Once thou verily hearkened unto my prayer aforetime,/Honoring me, and severely scourgedst the host of the Grecians!37
    • To cause (someone or something) persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble; to afflict, to torment.
      • ✤ 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.38
      • ✤ Thou hast, thyself, broken all laws, dissolved every tie; thou bruisest, scourgest, robbest this thy noble kingdom of England, and shall we not have at least the poor liberty to rail.39
    • (Scotland, agriculture) Of a crop or a farmer: to deplete the fertility of (land or soil).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /skɜːd͡ʒ/
  • (General American) IPA: /skɜɹd͡ʒ/, [skɔɹd͡ʒ]
  • Audio (General American): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒ

Etymology 1

🖼️ ➺

From Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”),40 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”));41 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”));42 or
  • from Middle English scourgen (verb) (see etymology 2).
  • Italian scuriada, scuriata

Etymology 2

From Middle English scourgen (“to whip, scourge; to afflict; to punish”),43 and then either:

  • from scourge (noun) + -en (suffix forming infinitives of verbs);44 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);45 or
    • from Vulgar Latin ﹡excorrigiō, from Latin ex- (intensifying prefix) + corrigia (“a whip”);46 or
    • directly from Late Latin excoriāre.45

See further at etymology 1.

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Psalm lxxxviij:[31–32], folio xxvij, verso, column 1: ↩

  2. 1609, The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Laurence Kellam, […], →OCLC, 2 Paralipomenon 10:11, page 886: ↩

  3. 1614–1615, Homer, “The Sixth Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume I, London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC, page 136, lines 111–113: ↩

  4. a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 204, lines 1059–1061: ↩

  5. 1833 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “St. Simeon Stylites”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 61: ↩

  6. 1936, Rollo Ahmed, “The Church and Monastic Black Magic”, in The Black Art, London: Senate, Studio Editions, published 1994, →ISBN, page 99: ↩

  7. 1574, Augustine Marlorate [i.e., Augustin Marlorat], “[Revelation 2:3]”, in Arthur Golding, transl., A Catholike Exposition vpon the Reuelation of Sainct Iohn. […], London: […] H[enry] Binneman, for L[ucas] Harison, and G[eorge] Bishop, →OCLC, folio 32, verso: ↩

  8. 1611, Thomas Coryate [i.e., Thomas Coryat], “My Obseruations of the Most Glorious, Peerelesse, and Mayden Citie of Venice: […]”, in Coryats Crudities Hastily Gobled Vp in Five Moneths Trauells […], London: […] W[illiam] S[tansby for the author], →OCLC, page 162, lines 14–18: ↩

  9. 1781, Edward Gibbon, “The Character, Conquests, and Court of Attila, King of the Huns—Death of Theodosius the Younger —Elevation of Marcian to the Empire of the East”, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume III, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 368: ↩

  10. 1819, Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, The Cenci: A Tragedy, […], [Livorno], Italy: […] [Percy B. Shelley] for C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 48: ↩

  11. 1925, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Blessed are the Powerful”, in Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays, 1st American edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Centaur Press, →OCLC, page 157: ↩

  12. 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 111, column 2: ↩

  13. c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], signature [C4], verso: ↩

  14. 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Experience”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book III, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 661: ↩

  15. c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 12, column 2: ↩

  16. a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 181, lines 466–469: ↩

  17. 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume II, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 30: ↩

  18. a. 1823 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Charles the First. A Fragment.”, in William Michael Rossetti, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: […], revised edition, volume II, London: E[dward] Moxon, Son, & Co., […], published 1870, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 385: ↩

  19. 1882, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], chapter II, in In Maremma […], volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 23: ↩

  20. 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist ‎, volume 407, number 8838, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 May 2023, page 11: ↩

  21. 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 96, column 1: ↩

  22. 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “That the Taste of Goods or Evilles doth Greatly Depend on the Opinion We Have of Them”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 133: ↩

  23. 1725, [Daniel Defoe], “Part I”, in A New Voyage Round the World, by a Course Never Sailed before. […], London: […] A[rthur] Bettesworth, […]; and W. Mears, […], →OCLC, page 95: ↩

  24. a. 1823 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Charles the First. A Fragment.”, in William Michael Rossetti, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: […], revised edition, volume II, London: E[dward] Moxon, Son, & Co., […], published 1870, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 383: ↩

  25. 1854 July 4 (date delivered), Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “[Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers.] Slavery in Massachusetts.”, in A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1866, →OCLC, pages 108–109: ↩

  26. a. 1874 (date written), Lord Lytton [i.e., Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter I, in [Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of] Lytton, editor, Pausanias the Spartan: An Unfinished Historical Romance […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: George Routledge and Sons […], published 1876, →OCLC, book II, page 137: ↩

  27. 1892, A[ugustine] D[avid] Crake, “Witness to Jesus”, in The Victor’s Laurel. A Tale of School-life during the Tenth Persecution in Italy, Oxford, Oxfordshire; London: Mowbray & Co., →OCLC, page 112: ↩

  28. 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a] nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a] nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 913–917: ↩

  29. 1812, [Walter Savage Landor], Count Julian: A Tragedy, London: […] [F] or John Murray, […], [b] y James Moyes, […], →OCLC, Act V, scene ii, page 96: ↩

  30. 1553, “The Primer: Or Book of Private Prayer, Needful to be Used of All Christians. […] [Sundry Godly Prayers for Divers Purposes.]”, in Joseph Ketley, editor, The Two Liturgies, A.D. 1549, and A.D. 1552: With Other Documents Set Forth by Authority in the Reign of King Edward VI. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] University Press, published 1844, →OCLC, page 474: ↩

  31. c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], signature [I4], recto: ↩

  32. 1607, Thomas Dekker, “The Whore of Babylon. […]”, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker […], volume II, London: John Pearson […], published 1873, →OCLC, page 256: ↩

  33. 1626 May 31 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), John Donne, “Sermon LXXVII. Preached at St. Paul’s, May 21, 1626.”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume III, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 413: ↩

  34. 1835, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Brawl”, in Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I (The Time, the Place, and the Men), page 42: ↩

  35. 1840, S[aint] Augustine [i.e., Augustine of Hippo], “The Third Book”, in E[dward] B[ouverie] Pusey, transl., The Confessions of S. Augustine. […] (Library of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, […]; I), Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Henry Parker; London: J. G. F. and J. Rivington, →OCLC, paragraph[III].5, page 31: ↩

  36. 1876, Thomas Hardy, “Lychworth (continued)—The Anglebury Highway”, in The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 282: ↩

  37. 1877, Homer, “Book I”, in James A. Martling, transl., The Iliad of Homer. […], St. Louis, Mo.: The R. P. Studley Company, […], →OCLC, page 19, lines 453–454: ↩

  38. 1642 April, John Milton, An Apology for Smectymnuus; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 185: ↩

  39. 1844 April 13, “The Last Days of the Plantagenets. Henry III.—Part II.”, in A[lexander] D. Paterson, editor, The Anglo American, volume 2, number 25, New York, N.Y.: E. L. Garvin & Co., →OCLC, pages 594–595: ↩

  40. “scǒurǧe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  41. “scourge, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023. ↩

  42. “scourge, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

  43. “scǒurǧen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  44. “-en, suf. (3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  45. “scourge, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023. ↩ ↩2

  46. “scourge, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

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