Also corbage, courbash, -bache, coorbatch, kurbasch, cur-, kur-, korbash. [a. Arabic qurbāsh, ad. Turk. qirbāch whip: cf. F. courbache.] A whip made of hide, esp. that of the hippopotamus; an instrument of punishment in Turkey, Egypt, and the Soudan.
1814. W. Brown, Hist. Propag. Chr., II. 40. A Corbage, which consists of a strap of the skin of the hippopotamus, about a yard in length.
1842. R. R. Madden, United Irishmen, I. xi. 337. Persons subjected to the torture of the ‘courbash,’ in Damascus.
1866. Emmeline Lott, Harem Life Egypt, II. 90. I soon after heard stifled cries, and a cracking of the courbache.
1884. J. Colborne, Hicks Pasha, 189. It is the peculiar mission of the hippopotamus to supply Kurbashes for the backs of the natives.
1885. Mrs. E. Sartorius, In the Soudan, viii. 129. An unlimited application of the koorbash.
1892. Nation (N. Y.), 11 Aug., 107/3. To plead urgently for the abolition of the kurbash.
