drubbing

/drəbɪŋ/

Other forms: drubbings

A drubbing in sports is a defeat, especially by a wide margin. Your team's 100-point loss in the dodgeball tournament could be called a drubbing. Ouch.

When one team soundly beats another, that's a drubbing. You can also use this word for a more literal kind of beating, actually physically striking someone: "My brother threatened to give that bully a drubbing if he keeps teasing me." The word comes from the verb drub, "to beat," probably from the Arabic root daraba, "he beat up."

Definitions of drubbing

1. noun

   a sound defeat
   synonyms: debacle, slaughter, thrashing, trouncing, walloping, whipping

   type of:

   defeat, licking

   an unsuccessful ending to a struggle or contest
2. noun

   the act of inflicting corporal punishment with repeated blows
   synonyms: beating, lacing, licking, thrashing, trouncing, whacking

   types:

   flagellation, flogging, lashing, tanning, whipping

   beating with a whip or strap or rope as a form of punishment

   flagellation

   beating as a source of erotic or religious stimulation

   self-flagellation

   self-punishment inflicted by whipping

   horsewhipping

   the act of whipping with a horsewhip

   type of:

   corporal punishment

   the infliction of physical injury on someone convicted of committing a crime