Caned

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /keɪnd/

Definitions

1. Subjected to corporal punishment using a cane as the instrument of discipline
2. Received a physical penalty involving strikes from a slender stick or rod
3. Disciplined by being struck repeatedly with a flexible wooden cane

Etymology: Beating someone with a cane is older than the cane's use as a walking stick. The plant was named first: the Akkadian "qanû" meant "reed", and the Greeks borrowed it as "kánna", which the Romans turned into "canna". Old French then used "cane" for sugar cane, and English took the word in the Middle Ages with that same sense of a tall, hollow-stemmed plant. From a reed, the word came to mean a slender rod. Strong, flexible stems of cane made good switches, so a cane became an instrument of punishment, and to be "caned" meant to be beaten with one. The word is a doublet of "canna" and "kaneh", and it is related to "channel" and "canal", which share the idea of something hollow.

Synonyms: beaten, thrashed, whipped, punished, struck

Antonyms: coddled, pampered, indulged, protected, spared