Word.ws English Dictionary

drubbing

/ˈdɹʌbɪŋ/

drubbing is the present participle and gerund of drub.

Noun

drubbing (plural drubbings)

  1. A severe beating.
    • His mother gave him a drubbing after finding out he'd been stealing.
    • Yet upon its release in Germany the first world war drama has been at the receiving end of a critical drubbing, with critics complaining that it turns a beloved literary classic into a spectacle “horny for an Oscar”, and military historians bemoaning its “black-and-white” historical inaccuracies.2023 January 27, Philip Oltermann, “German critics pan Oscar-nominated All Quiet On the Western Front”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  2. A thorough defeat.
    • The debate team got a drubbing from the competition.
    • Leighton Baines's deflected free-kick added yet more late gloss to the drubbing, the Everton player celebrating his first competitive start with England's first goal direct from a free-kick since David Beckham scored against Ecuador at the 2006 World Cup.2012 September 7, Dominic Fifield, “England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova”, in The Guardian

Meaning of drub

Verb

drub (third-person singular simple present drubs, present participle drubbing, simple past and past participle drubbed)

  1. (transitive) To beat (someone or something) with a stick.
  2. (transitive) To defeat someone soundly; to annihilate or crush.
  3. (transitive) To forcefully teach something.
  4. (transitive) To criticize harshly; to excoriate.

See all 5 meanings of drub

Forms of drubbing

pluraldrubbings

Origin of drubbing

From drub + -ing.

Words that rhyme with drubbing

Questions about drubbing

What does drubbing mean?
Drubbing means a severe beating.
What is drubbing the present participle and gerund of?
Drubbing is the present participle and gerund of drub.
What part of speech is drubbing?
Drubbing is a noun.
How do you pronounce drubbing?
Drubbing is pronounced /ˈdɹʌbɪŋ/.
What is the plural of drubbing?
The plural of drubbing is drubbings.

Words near drubbing in the dictionary

  1. Dru
  2. drub
  3. drubbed
  4. drubber
  5. drubbers
  6. drubbing
  7. drubbings
  8. drubly
  9. drubs
  10. Druce
  11. Druchunas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drubbing (page history and authors); drub (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-drubbing.wav.

Cite this entry: “drubbing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drubbing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.