leathering

Pluralleatherings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A severe beating or thrashing, typically delivered as a punishment or in a fight.

   His father promised him a leathering if he stayed out past dark.

   The losing team took a real leathering, beaten by forty points.

   Similarthrashing, beating, hiding, drubbing, hammering

   Note

   The strap is in the word. The noun grew from the verb's sense of beating someone with a leather belt or strap, and from its looser sense of striking hard. Unlike the gerund, it is fully countable, so it takes an article and a plural: one leathering, several leatherings. The figurative use for a crushing defeat keeps the original sting of punishment.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of leather.

   She was leathering the rug over the railing to beat out the dirt.

   Leathering his opponent in the ring, the boxer dominated every round.

   Note

   One spelling carries several verbs: the -ing form inherits every sense of leather. It can mean covering something with leather, forming a tough leathery surface, striking hard, or strapping someone with a belt, and context decides which. As a gerund it names the act itself. Once it means a beating and takes an article, it has become the noun for a thrashing.

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