horsing

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)sɪŋ

horsing

1. present participle and gerund of horse

horsing (plural horsings)

1. The military punishment of placing somebody on the back of another person, or on a wooden horse, etc., to be flogged.
   • 1826, William Oxberry, Catherine Elizabeth Hewitt Oxberry, Oxberry's Dramatic Biography and Histrionic Anecdotes:

     And though we cannot enumerate the “horsings,” and other little tender attentions that his juvenile indiscretions obtained him, we give him full credit for having received a modicum of castigation.

   • 1838, Thomas Dick, The educational magazine, and journal of Christian philanthropy:

     He grew up mortal fond of trading, and with a mortal hatred to learning; he, however, was flogged through Osterald's abridgement of the New Testament once or twice, and got one or two horsings over a Chapter of Genesis […]

• shoring