[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To punish with a birch rod; to flog.
[Not in Richardson; nor in Todd 1818.]
1823. Leeds Mercury, 22 Feb., 2/6. The Earl, it appears, was beat by his wife, beat by her paramour, beat by her relations, and even beat by the servants, and sometimes even birched in the school-boy style.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xlvii. Like a school-boy ordered up to be birched.
1845. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, v. At Eton … he was birched with perfect impartiality.
2. To drive (knowledge) into (a boy) by flogging.
1883. American, VI. 214. Greek and Latin were birched into them while they were young.
