scourge

noun

1. (historical)A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash.

   “He flogged him with a scourge.”

   “Yf they breake myne ordinaunces, and kepe not my commaundementes. I vil vyſet their offences with the rodde, and their ſynnes with ſcourges.”

   “My father layd vpon you a heauie yoke, vvhich I vvil make heauier: my father bette you vvith ſcourges, but I vvil beate you vvith ſcorpions.”

   “Up to coach then goes / Th' observed Maid, takes both the scourge and reins, / And to her side her handmaid straight attains.”

   “[H]eaven-born truth, / And moderation fair, vvere the red marks / Of ſuperſtition's ſcourge: […]”

2. (figuratively)A person or thing regarded as an agent of divine punishment.

   “And therfore the faithfull had neede of inuincible conſtancie and incredible pacience, that they may know them to be gods squorges, and the inſtrumentes of his wrath, […]”

   “Againe not long after this euen ſhortly after the death of Alaricus came that Flagellum Dei that ſcourge of God into Italy, Attila King of the Hunnes, and ſpoyled the country vvith maruailous hoſtility in the time of the Emperour Martian.”

   “[I]f Attila equalled the hoſtile ravages of Tamerlane, either the Tartar or the Hun might deſerve the epithet of the Scourge of God.”

   “[H]e, / As he is wont, came to upbraid and curse, / Mocking our poverty, and telling us / Such was God's scourge for disobedient sons.”

   “Yet true destructive power is power just the same as constructive. Even Attila, the Scourge of God, who helped to scourge the Roman world out of existence, was great with power. He was the scourge of God; not the scourge of the League of Nations, hired and paid in cash.”

3. (figuratively)A source of persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble, such as a cruel ruler, disease, pestilence, or war.

   “Graffiti is the scourge of building owners everywhere.”

   “Thou ominous and fearefull Ovvle of death, / Our Nations terror, and their bloody ſcourge, / The period of thy Tyranny approacheth, / On vs thou canſt not enter but by death: […]”

   “[W]hat ſcourge for periury, / Can this darke monarchy afford falſe Clarence, […]”

   “Intemperance is the plague of ſenſualitie; and temperance is not her ſcourge, but rather her ſeaſoning.”

   “You haue bin a ſcourge to her enemies, you haue bin a Rod to her Friends, you haue not indeede loued the Common people.”

verb

1. (transitive)To strike (a person, an animal, etc.) with a scourge (noun etymology 1 sense 1) or whip; to flog, to whip.

   “Hvng be yͤ heauens vvith black, yield day to night; / Comets importing change of Times and States, / Brandiſh your cryſtall Treſſes in the Skie, / And vvith them ſcourge the bad reuolting Stars, / That haue conſented vnto Henries Death: / King Henry the Fift, too famous to liue long, / England ne're loſt a King of ſo much vvorth.”

   “Doe vve not vpon every good-friday, in ſundrie places, ſee a great number of men and vvomen, ſcourge and beate themſelves ſo long till they bruſe and teare their fleſh, even to the bones? I have often ſeene it my ſelfe, and that vvithout enchantment.”

   “[…] I cauſed him to be brought to the Geers, vvith a Halter about his Neck, and be ſoundly vvhipp'd; and indeed our People did ſcourge him ſeverely from Head to Foot; […]”

   “For the waves never menace heaven until / Scourged by the wind's invisible tyranny”

   “If they vote, they do not send men to Congress on errands of humanity; but while their brothers and sisters are being scourged and hung for loving liberty, while—I might here insert all that slavery implies and is,—it is the mismanagement of wood and iron and stone and gold which concerns them.”

2. (transitive)To drive, or force (a person, an animal, etc.) to move, with or as if with a scourge or whip.

   “So judge thou ſtill, preſumptuous, till the wrauth, / Which thou incurr'ſt by flying, meet thy flight / Seavenfold, and ſcourge that wiſdom back to Hell, / Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain / Can equal anger infinite provok't.”

   “Thou knowest not, and mayst thou never know, / How bitter is the tear that firy shame / Scourges and tortures from the soldier's eye.”

3. (figuratively, transitive)To punish (a person, an animal, etc.); to chastise.

   “For a Patient and Thankful Heart in Sickness. Whom thou lovest, O Lord, him dost thou chasten, yea, every son that thou receivest, thou scourgest, and in so doing thou offerest thyself unto him, as a father unto his son. For what son is whom the father chasteneth not?”

   “He cals vs rebels, traitors, and vvill ſcourge / VVith haughtie armes this hatefull name in vs.”

   “You ſhall with rods of iron ſcourge theſe treaſons.”

   “[T]he purgatory is before the indulgence, the correction is before mercy. He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth; first he scourges him, and then he receives him; […] as long as his love lasts, he corrects us, and as long as he corrects us, he loves us.”

   “Look at thy followers and clients: are they not cutting the throats of humble men by way of vengeance for the crime of a great one? But that is the way one patrician always scourges the insolence of another.”

4. (figuratively, transitive)To cause (someone or something) persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble; to afflict, to torment.

   “And that the Remonſtrant cannot vvaſh his hands of all the cruelties exercis'd by the Prelats, is paſt doubting. They ſcourg'd the Confeſſors of the Goſpel, and he held the Scourgers garments.”

   “Thou hast, thyself, broken all laws, dissolved every tie; thou bruisest, scourgest, robbest this thy noble kingdom of England, and shall we not have at least the poor liberty to rail.”

5. (Scotland, figuratively, transitive)Of a crop or a farmer: to deplete the fertility of (land or soil).