Scourge

scourge
    n 1: a whip used to inflict punishment (often used for pedantic
         humor) [syn: {scourge}, {flagellum}]
    2: something causing misery or death; "the bane of my life"
       [syn: {bane}, {curse}, {scourge}, {nemesis}]
    3: a person who inspires fear or dread; "he was the terror of
       the neighborhood" [syn: {terror}, {scourge}, {threat}]
    v 1: punish severely; excoriate
    2: whip; "The religious fanatics flagellated themselves" [syn:
       {flagellate}, {scourge}]
    3: cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly; "The enemy lay
       waste to the countryside after the invasion" [syn: {lay waste
       to}, {waste}, {devastate}, {desolate}, {ravage}, {scourge}]
    

Scourge \Scourge\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Scourged}; p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Scourging}.] [From {Scourge}, n.: cf. OF. escorgier.]
   1. To whip severely; to lash.
      [1913 Webster]

            Is it lawful for you to scourge a . . . Roman?
                                                  --Acts xxii.
                                                  25.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To punish with severity; to chastise; to afflict, as for
      sins or faults, and with the purpose of correction.
      [1913 Webster]

            Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth
            every son whom he receiveth.          --Heb. xii. 6.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To harass or afflict severely.
      [1913 Webster]

            To scourge and impoverish the people. --Brougham.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Scourge \Scourge\, n. [F. escourg['e]e, fr. L. excoriata (sc.
   scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriare to
   strip, to skin. See {Excoriate}.]
   1. A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to
      inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or
      discipline; a whip.
      [1913 Webster]

            Up to coach then goes
            The observed maid, takes both the scourge and reins.
                                                  --Chapman.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Hence, a means of inflicting punishment, vengeance, or
      suffering; an infliction of affliction; a punishment.
      [1913 Webster]

            Sharp scourges of adversity.          --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

            What scourge for perjury
            Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?
                                                  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]
    

154 Moby Thesaurus words for "scourge":
      adversity, afflict, affliction, ambulatory plague, bane, baste,
      bastinado, beat, belabor, belt, birch, black death, black plague,
      blacksnake, blister, bubonic plague, buffet, bugbear, bullwhack,
      bullwhip, burden, calamity, cane, castigate, castigation, cat,
      cellulocutaneous plague, chastening, chastise, chastisement, club,
      condign punishment, correction, cowhide, crop, crushing burden,
      cudgel, curse, cut, death, defervescing plague, depredate,
      desecrate, deserts, desolate, despoil, destruction, devastate,
      disciplinary measures, discipline, disease, drub, epidemic,
      epiphytotic, epizootic, evil, excoriate, ferule, flagellate,
      flagellum, flail, flay, flog, frail, fustigate, give a whipping,
      give the stick, glandular plague, grievance, harm,
      hemorrhagic plague, hide, hit, horsewhip, infliction, judgment,
      judicial punishment, knout, kurbash, lace, larval plague, lash,
      lather, lay on, misery, misfortune, murrain, nemesis, open wound,
      pains, pains and punishments, pandemia, pandemic, pay, payment,
      penal retribution, penalty, penology, pest, pesthole, pestilence,
      pillage, pistol-whip, plague, plague spot, pneumonic plague,
      pommel, premonitory plague, pummel, punish, punishment, punition,
      quirt, rawhide, razor strap, retribution, retributive justice,
      running sore, sack, scarify, scathe, scorch, septicemic plague,
      siderating plague, sjambok, slash, smite, spank, spoliate, strap,
      stripe, swinge, switch, thong, thorn, thrash, thump, torment,
      trounce, truncheon, tuberculosis, vexation, visitation, wallop,
      waste, wear out, well-deserved punishment, whale, what-for, whip,
      whiplash, white plague, whop, woe