Also 8 knoute, knowt, 8–9 knoot. [a. French spelling of Russ. кнутъ knut.] A kind of whip or scourge, very severe and often fatal in its effects, formerly used in Russia as an instrument of punishment.
1716. J. Perry, State of Russia, 218, note. The Knout is a thick hard Thong of Leather of about three Foot and a half long, fasten’d to the end of a handsome Stick about two Foot and a half long, with a Ring or kind of Swivle like a Flail at the end of it, to which the Thong is fasten’d.
1753. Scots Mag., XV. Jan., 6/1. The Russian government has been rendered more mild, by an abolition of the severe punishment of the knout.
1780. Gentl. Mag., Dec., 578/1. Death is often the consequence of a punishment apparently more mild, viz. the knoot.
1808. Sir R. R. Porter, Trav. Sk. Russ. & Swed. (1813), II. xxviii. 20. I have been to witness the execution of the Knout, to a height of torture which very seldom is now inflicted.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. IV. viii. Shall I weep if … an infant civilisation be ruled with rod or with knout?
