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Cat-o'-nine-tails
A whip, first with three, then with six, and lastly with nine
lashes, used for punishing offenders, and briefly called a cat.
Lilburn was scourged, in 1637, with a whip having only three lashes,
but there were twenty knots in each tail, and, as he received a lash
every three paces between the Fleet and Old Palace Yard, Cook says that
60,000 stripes were inflicted. Titus Oates was scourged, in the reign
of James II., with a cat having six lashes, and, between Newgate and
Tyburn, received as many as 17,000 lashes. The
cat-o'-nine-tails once used in the British army and navy is no
longer employed there, but garotters and some other offenders are still
scourged. Probably the punishment was first used on board ship, where
ropes would be handy, and several ropes are called cats, as
“cat-harpings,” for bracing the shrouds, “cat-falls,” which pass over
the cat-head and communicate with the cat-block. etc.
The French martinet (q.v.) had twelve leather thongs.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Cat-o'-nine-tails from Infoplease:
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