drub
pronunciation
How to pronounce drub in British English:
UK [drʌb]
How to pronounce drub in American English:
US [drʌb]
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- Verb:
- beat thoroughly in a competition or fight
Word Origin
- drub
- drub: [17] Drub appears to have been introduced to the English language by Sir Thomas Herbert (1606–82), a traveller in the Orient, who used the word several times in his Relation of some yeares travaile into Afrique and the greater Asia 1634: ‘[The pasha] made the Petitioner be almost drub’d to death’. It came from Arabic dáraraba, which meant not just ‘beat’, but also specifically ‘bastinado’ – ‘beat on the soles of the feet as a punishment or torture’.
- drub (v.)
- 1630s (in an Oriental travel narrative), probably from Arabic darb "a beating," from daraba "he beat up" (see discussion in OED). Related: Drubbed; Drubbing.