Word.ws English Dictionary

hookswinging

hookswinging noun: a ritualistic form of torture in which a volunteer was hung from hooks attached to the flesh on the back.

Noun

hookswinging (uncountable)

  1. A ritualistic form of torture in which a volunteer was hung from hooks attached to the flesh on the back.
    • In late October 1891, the Madras Mail¹ brought dramatic attention to the fact that “the barbarous and cruel custom of hookswinging to propitiate the Goddess of Rain, which has been obsolete for some time, has been revived at Sholavandan near Madura.”1997 January 1, Nicholas B. Dirks, “The Policing of Tradition: Colonialism and Anthropology in Southern India”, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, volume 39, number 1, Cambridge...

Origin of hookswinging

From hook + swinging.

Questions about hookswinging

What does hookswinging mean?
Hookswinging means a ritualistic form of torture in which a volunteer was hung from hooks attached to the flesh on the back.
What part of speech is hookswinging?
Hookswinging is a noun.

Words near hookswinging in the dictionary

  1. hookshop
  2. hookshops
  3. hookshot
  4. hookshots
  5. hooksian
  6. hookswinging
  7. hookswitch
  8. hookswitches
  9. hooktail
  10. hooktails
  11. hookthorn

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hookswinging (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.

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