Fustigate

WORD OF THE DAY

fustigate / verb / FUSS-tuh-gayt

Definition

1A: to beat with or as if with a short heavy club 

1b: cudgel

2: to criticize severely

Examples

Matthew was thoroughly ­fustigated for failing to reserve a table large enough to accommodate all of the visitors from the corporate main office.

"Ontario Court Justice Charles Vaillancourt …  fustigated them all, effectively characterizing the charges against Duffy as an abuse of power. " 

— Neil Macdonald, CBC.ca, 23 Apr. 2016

Did You Know?

Though it won't leave a bump on your head, severe criticism can be a blow to your self-esteem. It's no wonder that fustigate, when it first appeared in the 17th century, originally meant "to cudgel or beat with a short heavy stick," a sense that reflects the word's derivation from the Latin noun fustis, which means "club" or "staff." 

The "criticize" sense is more common these days, but the violent use of fustigate was a hit with earlier writers like George Huddesford, who in 1801 told of an angry Jove who "cudgell'd all the constellations, ... / Swore he'd eject the man i' the moon ... / And fustigate him round his orbit."