flagellate

/ˌflædʒəˈleɪt/

Other forms: flagellated; flagellating; flagellates

To flagellate is to hit or beat, especially with a whip. These days, in most parts of the world, people rarely flagellate others as a punishment.

While the verb flagellate can be used for any variety of whipping or beating, it often means a kind of religious self-punishment. This practice, while not common today, exists among some groups of Catholics who hit their own shoulders and backs as part of religious discipline. Flagellate comes from the noun flagellum, "a slender, thread-like structure," or in Latin, "whip."

Definitions of flagellate

1. verb

   whip
   “The religious fanatics flagellated themselves”

   synonyms: scourge

   type of:

   flog, lash, lather, slash, strap, trounce, welt, whip

   beat severely with a whip or rod
2. adjective

   having or resembling a lash or whip (as does a flagellum)
   synonyms: flagellated, lash-like, whiplike
3. noun

   a usually nonphotosynthetic free-living protozoan with whiplike appendages; some are pathogens of humans and other animals
   synonyms: flagellate protozoan, flagellated protozoan, mastigophoran, mastigophore

   types:

   dinoflagellate

   chiefly marine protozoa having two flagella; a chief constituent of plankton

   Leishmania, genus Leishmania

   flagellate protozoan that causes leishmaniasis

   zooflagellate, zoomastigote

   flagellate protozoan lacking photosynthesis and other plant-like characteristics

   hypermastigote

   flagellate symbiotic in the intestines of e.g. termites

   polymastigote

   flagellates with several flagella

   Costia necatrix, costia

   a flagellate that is the cause of the frequently fatal fish disease costiasis

   giardia

   a suspected cause of diarrhea in humans

   trichomonad

   cause of trichomoniasis in women and cattle and birds

   Noctiluca miliaris, noctiluca

   large bioluminescent marine protozoan

   peridinian

   flagellate with a thick test composed of plates

   type of:

   protozoan, protozoon

   any of diverse minute acellular or unicellular organisms usually nonphotosynthetic