sb. Chiefly Sc. Forms: 6 tawis, -es, 8 tawz, taz, 8– tawse, 9– taws. [app. plural of TAW sb.1 2 (but evidenced much earlier); sometimes treated as a singular.]
1. A whip for driving a spinning top; esp. one made of a thong: see quot. 1892. (In quot. 1513 prob. pl. as in 2.)
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. vii. 91. As … the round top of tre [wooden top] Hit with the twynit quhyp, dois quherle, we see … smyttin wyth the tawis dois rebound, And rynnis about, about, in cirkill round.
1892. Ballymena (Antrim) Observer (E.D.D.). Tawse, a few strips of leather tied to a shaft, used by boys in spinning tops.
2. spec. An instrument of family or school discipline, used in Scotch and many English schools, consisting of a leathern strap or thong, divided at the end into narrow strips. Also transf. and fig.
In Sc. const. as plural, and in phrase a pair of taws.
a. 1585. Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 57. In thy teeth bring mee the tawes, With beckes my bidding to abide. Ibid., 571.
1719. Ramsay, 2nd Answ. to Hamilton, vi. I’ve kiss’d the tawz, like a good bairn. Ibid. (1721), Lucky Spence, ix. Vild hangy’s taz ye’r riggings fast Makes black and blae. Ibid. (1725), Gentle Sheph., V. iii. Prol. The tawz Was handled by revengefu’ Madge.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, Taws, a pair of taws, a leather strap used by schoolmasters for chastising children.
1825. Carlyle, Early Lett. (1886), II. 329. A pedagogue called Fate; he is an excellent teacher, but his fees are very high, and his tawse are rather heavy.
1834. M. Scott, Cruise Midge (1863), 207. I took out the Tawse, and laid them on the closed Bible as a terror to evil doers.
1865. R. Chambers, Ess., Ser. II. 79. He carried a pair of short but impressive taws.
1892. Schoolmaster, 31 Dec., 1165/2. Nottingham School Board. The Board authorises assistants to administer corporal punishment to the extent of a light stroke with a cane or tawse.
Mod. Sc. Behave yoursel’, or you’ll get the taws.
Comb. 1865. G. Macdonald, A. Forbes, 49. The smile, which, in spite of pain, had illuminated his tawse-waled cheeks.
1885. ‘S. Mucklebackit,’ Rural Rhymes, 142. The ancient tawse-swasher pled weariness.
Hence Tawse v. trans., to chastise with the taws.
1790. Shirrefs, Poems, Gloss., Taz, to whip, scourge, belabour.
1883. Mem. A. Maclean, 240. He was tawsed for his obstinacy.
