tongue-boring

noun

tongue-boring

noun
1

Historical A punishment whereby a hole or bore was made in someone's tongue.

  • Seventeenth-century settlers in the colonies - and usually their children as well - lived in a world that took for granted stocks and tongue-borings, religious proscriptions, fear of witches, and savage repression of the lower orders.1993, Peter Kolchin, American Slavery (Penguin History, paperback edition, 65)

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.