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plural tawses
(chiefly Scotland) A leather strap or thong which is split into (typically three) tails, used for corporal punishment in schools, applied to the palm of the hands or buttocks. quotations examples
I lay about me with the taws That night and morning I may thrash Greek Alexander from my flesh, […]
1919 March, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, “The Saint and the Hunchback”, in The Wild Swans at Coole, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, pages 104–105
third-person singular simple present tawses, present participle tawsing, simple past and past participle tawsed
(transitive, chiefly Scotland) To beat with a tawse. examples