Word.ws English Dictionary

ferules

ferules is the plural of ferule.

Meaning of ferule

Noun

ferule (plural ferules)

  1. (historical) A ruler-shaped instrument, generally used to slap naughty children on the hand.
    • In his hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of justice reposed on three nails behind the throne, a constant terror to evil doers, […].1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle...
    Synonyms:
    ferula

See all 2 meanings of ferule

Questions about ferules

What is ferules the plural of?
Ferules is the plural of ferule.

Words near ferules in the dictionary

  1. ferulate
  2. ferulated
  3. ferulates
  4. ferule
  5. feruled
  6. ferules
  7. ferulic
  8. ferulic acid
  9. feruling
  10. ferulings
  11. Ferullo

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ferules (page history and authors); ferule (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:

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