Definition of "knout" []

• A leather scourge used for flogging. (noun)
• To flog with a knout. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Like Catharine II., her envied contemporary, she consulted no ties of nature in the disposal of her children, -- a system more in character where the knout is the logician than among nations boasting higher civilization: indeed her rivalry with Catharine even made her grossly neglect their education."
• "When Jason Philip came back from the inn, he said: “To believe that people can be ruled without the knout is a fatal delusion.”"
• "You peasants are getting too saucy since you ceased to be serfs, and the knout is the best school for you to learn politics in."