Definition - to beat with a stick
Fustigate is a fine example of a word that has, over the centuries, had a few drinks, loosened its collar, and relaxed and become gentler. The word comes from the Latin fustigare, which has the charming definition of "to beat to death with a stick." It came into English in the latter portion of the 17th century, with the meaning "to cudgel." Shortly after it expanded and took on the additional not-beating-with-a-stick sense of "to criticize severely." The noun form of "good proper stick beating" is fustigation.
Neither could any person of Repute be punish'd with Fustigation, nor be sent to the Mines, neither were Nobles to be punish'd by hanging.
— Alexander Seton, A Treatise of Mutilation and Demembration Divided into Two Parts, 1699