Obs. Also 7 ferrular, feriler, -uler. [ad. L. ferulār-is of or belonging to the giant fennel.] = FERULA 2.
1594. O. B., Quest. Profitable Concernings, K iv a. A Feruler to admonish them with.
1600. Abp. Abbot, An Exposition upon the Prophet Jonah (1613), 352. The wicked are the worse, when they are vnder the ferular, and either do rage with furie, or else do sinke with fainting.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 55–6. What advantage is it to be a man over it is to be a boy at school, if we have only scapt the ferular, to come under the fescu of an Imprimatur?
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 312/1. The Ferrular is an Instrument used by School-Masters to correct their Scholars for petty Faults, by giving them slaps on the Palm of the Hand.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Ferula or Ferular, a Palmer, or flat Stick with which Boys are chastis’d at School.
1775. in Ash.
