as in whipping
to strike repeatedly with something long and thin or flexible
some medieval monks believed it was necessary to flagellate themselves in order to keep their desires in check
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for flagellating
Verb
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The wind was whipping this past week at McGrath Stadium, mist in the air.—
Brendan Connelly,
Boston Herald,
29 Sep. 2025 -
Video from Camiguin Island, posted by the Philippines Department of the Interior and Local Government, showed fierce winds and ocean water whipping past houses onto a residential street.—
Helen Regan,
CNN Money,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Johnson sat in the makeup chair for two hours undergoing a transformation process that resulted in the cauliflower ears, a specific browbone piece and other prosthetics, plus hiding his tattoos.—
Jazz Tangcay,
Variety,
4 Oct. 2025
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Keep scrolling to shop the best deals on plush bedding and area rugs hiding in Amazon’s home department.—
Isabel Garcia,
PEOPLE,
4 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Oxy barely survived the downturn, slashing its dividend from 79 cents per share each quarter down to just one penny.—
Jordan Blum,
Fortune,
2 Oct. 2025
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Even if the game was already lost, there might not have been a penalty more maddening than Nick Cousins slashing Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov just as his team began an odd-man rush.—
Julian McKenzie,
New York Times,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Imelda pulled away from the Bahamas Monday evening after lashing the islands with heavy rain, tropical storm-force winds and storm surge for two days.—
Briana Waxman,
CNN Money,
30 Sep. 2025
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Loners lashing out America has had genuine subversives and left-wing terror networks in the past.—
Michelle Goldberg,
Mercury News,
27 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Any dairy farmer can tell you that biting flies are a pestilent scourge for cattle herds, which is why one so often sees cows throwing their heads, stamping their feet, flicking their tails, and twitching their skin—desperately trying to shake off the nasty creatures.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
18 Sep. 2025
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While you guys had staff inside laughing, pointing and even flicking off the crowd outside.—
Megan Cartwright,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Within those questions is the greatness revealed when the image moves again, when charging Eagles safety Reed Blankenship lifts a hand to tip Mayfield’s fourth-quarter throw, when the flailing football tumbles into linebacker Jihaad Campbell’s arms near the pylon.—
Brooks Kubena,
New York Times,
29 Sep. 2025
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The film’s abundant humor and humanity are both rooted in DiCaprio’s ability to contain both of those people at once — to span the distance between those opposite shores while flailing towards each of them with equal desperation.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
26 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The Black Death and its aftermath saw a great resurgence of apocalyptic flagellation, with thousands of adherents flogging themselves up and down the Continent (the movement failed to take off in England, which figures).—
Michael Robbins,
Harpers Magazine,
20 Aug. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Flagellating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flagellating. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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