birching

(redirected from Birch-rod)

birch

paper birch

Betula papyrifera

birch

(bûrch)

a. Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs of the genus Betula, native to the Northern Hemisphere and having unisexual flowers in catkins, alternate, simple, toothed leaves, and bark that often peels in thin papery layers.

b. The hard, close-grained wood of any of these trees, used especially in furniture, interior finishes, and plywood.

2. A rod from a birch, used to administer a whipping.

tr.v. birched, birch·ing, birch·es

To whip with or as if with a birch.

[Middle English, from Old English birce; see bherəg- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

birching

(ˈbɜːtʃɪŋ)

the action of beating someone, esp a naughty schoolchild, with a birch

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Translations

birching

[ˈbɜːtʃɪŋ] N → azotamiento m (con la vara)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

birching

n (= act) → Prügeln nt; (Jur) → Prügelstrafe f; to get a birching → mit der Rute geschlagen werden

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

birching

[ˈbɜːtʃɪŋ] n → fustigazione f

References in classic literature ?

The pupils ate apples and put straws down one another's backs, until Mr Wopsle's great-aunt collected her energies, and made an indiscriminate totter at them with a birch-rod. After receiving the charge with every mark of derision, the pupils formed in line and buzzingly passed a ragged book from hand to hand.

View in context

100 years agoIn an 'unstarred' question in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Sir Walter Foster asked the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention had been called to a case of flogging at the Cottage Homes at Wednesfield, in which the medical officer described the back of the boy as covered with weals and abrasions from the nape of the neck to the back of the knees, whether he could state the characater of the birch-rod used and whether steps would be taken to prevent such punishments being inflicted on young persons in poor-law institutions in future.