as in to whip
to strike repeatedly with something long and thin or flexible
some medieval monks believed it was necessary to flagellate themselves in order to keep their desires in check
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Recent Examples of flagellate
Pop stars being badasses, as ever, but expressing doubt, and doing it without the flagellating self-destruction that might have come with an early iteration.
—
Susannah Felts, Longreads, 27 Apr. 2023
For Logan, none of these self-flagellating exercises mattered.
—Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2023
One Peruvian candidate has taken time to talk about his habit of wearing a wire chain, known as a cilice, every day to flagellate himself.
—Star Tribune, 8 Apr. 2021
All are said to have had affairs with Lucian Freud (was there anyone who didn’t?), three with Arthur Koestler and one with Egypt’s King Farouk (who liked to flagellate her on the steps of the royal palace with his dressing-gown cord).
—Moira Hodgson, WSJ, 31 Jan. 2020
See All Example Sentences for flagellate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for flagellate
Verb
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There were some frightening moments early Monday for a Miramar man after police say he was pistol whipped during a home invasion and his French bulldog was stolen.—
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Or whips around his defender in a bold pirouette.—
Verb
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Still seething after a sloppy 19-16 loss to the Detroit Lions, Johnson wasn’t hiding his dissatisfaction with a defeat that seemed to diminish his team’s momentum.—
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But the jury in the federal civil lawsuit found that Moore violated Gillispie's rights by hiding evidence that would have helped Gillispie's defense and creating unfair lineup procedures for the victims.—
Verb
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Major airlines have announced further cancellations to hundreds of flights scheduled through the weekend after more than 1,000 were slashed on Friday.—
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Fiserv’s crash came after the compan y slashed its full-year guidance and announced several changes to its executive leadership team.—
Verb
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The Speccie’s star columnist is the rudest man in Christendom, the Godzilla of contumely, an all-time non-sufferer of fools who horsewhips his targets the way Hunter S. Thompson and Christopher Hitchens once did.—
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In reality, Watson wasn’t a bar fighter or famous for horsewhipping cowboys.—
Verb
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Trump has also repeatedly lashed out over the state’s incarceration of Tina Peters, the former county clerk convicted of state felonies related to her attempts to prove discredited election conspiracies shared by the president.—
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According to Augustinus Bader, apply to brows and lashes morning and night.—
Verb
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From penny loafers and tassel loafers to leather and suede variations, there are so many different iterations of the tried-and-true shoe that can fit seamlessly into your closet, no matter your personal style.—
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The brand sources leather exclusively from colder climates, where fibers tighten under temperature, ensuring structure without compromising fluidity.—
Verb
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Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphins’ majority owner since 2009, is now looking for his eighth different head coach in a parade of floundering, flailing and failing.—
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On Netflix Summer 2026 | Comedy A forty-year-old executive hopes to save his flailing career by joining a group of twenty-somethings on a wild three-day bachelor party, after he’s inadvertently added to their group text.—
Verb
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Others have called out the boring marketing campaign based around flogging variants in order for Swift to finally beat the record for the biggest opening sales week for a female artist in history (currently held by Adele, which she is likely projected to break).—
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The only thing tougher to watch than the Bengals’ offense on Sunday was Browning flogging himself over the failure.—
Cite this Entry
“Flagellate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flagellate. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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