1
as in whipped
to strike repeatedly with something long and thin or flexible
students at the private school were once routinely birched for violating the rules
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in licked
to strike repeatedly
always a stern disciplinarian, our father birched anyone who talked back
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for birched
Verb
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In an unlit room, the children are whipped and verbally chastized.—
Blake Simons,
IndieWire,
26 Jan. 2026 -
Mountains of snow accumulated in drifts, whipped by winds of 50 mph or more.—
Kori Rumore,
Chicago Tribune,
26 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Just hours before Saturday morning’s Shabbat service, flames and smoke licked through the synagogue, destroying at least two Torahs and many prayer books.—
Bracey Harris,
NBC news,
14 Jan. 2026
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When asked by director Marina Zenovich if there was a time when Chase walked away from his mother and stepfather and never saw them again, Chase pretended to swat a fly on his forehead, then licked his fingers as if eating the imaginary bug.—
Ethan Shanfeld,
Variety,
2 Jan. 2026
Verb
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But Johnson, who won a pair of Super Bowl championships with the Cowboys, lashed out at Spygate being the reason for Belichick not being selected.—
Pete Grathoff,
Kansas City Star,
28 Jan. 2026
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This is far from the first time the White House has lashed out at the cohosts of The View.—
Joey Nolfi,
Entertainment Weekly,
21 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Splitting those 36 counties into three slices helps to show how the homebuying burden has changed from 2025’s fourth quarter to not-so-recent lows in buying’s financial burden – a decade-plus ago, just after the Great Recession slashed prices.—
Jonathan Lansner,
Oc Register,
31 Jan. 2026
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In California, lawmakers responded to the local news crisis with a series of efforts that have been killed off or slashed down.—
Ethan Baron,
Mercury News,
28 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Searchers looked in backyards, knocked on doors and pounded the pavement.—
Susan Young,
PEOPLE,
28 Jan. 2026
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Forecasters say damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.—
Thomas Peipert,
Los Angeles Times,
24 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The media flagged and flogged it for AI incompetence.—
Jim Cramer,
CNBC,
25 Jan. 2026
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To be publicly flogged for how much Pa permitted us to do — that felt grossly unfair.—
Meredith Kile,
PEOPLE,
31 Dec. 2025
Verb
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That has certainly been the case for some consumers, battered by inflation, tariffs and high borrowing costs that have sparked an affordability crisis.—
Mari Sato The Dallas Morning News,
Arkansas Online,
1 Feb. 2026
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Xcel cut power to about 9,000 customers in mid-January when high winds battered northern Colorado.—
Judith Kohler,
Denver Post,
31 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The Patriots leaned on Los Angeles offensively and thrashed them on defense, circling Justin Herbert in the first half before swarming him for four sacks in the second.—
Andrew Callahan,
Boston Herald,
13 Jan. 2026
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The Giants followed that up by getting thrashed by the Eagles in Philadelphia this past Sunday.—
Matthew Schmidt,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Birched.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/birched. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
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