virgal
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin virgālis or virga + -al.
Adjective
[edit]virgal
- (rare, possibly obsolete) Made of twigs or rods.
- 1732, Henry Fielding, The Complete Works of Henry Fielding, page 115:
- [...] lift the virgal rod, / That hangman you so narrowly escaped!
- 1882, George Augustus Sala, America Revisited: From the Bay of New York to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Lake Michigan to the Pacific, page 37:
- The terrible "Croquemitaine" and his frightful spouse flourish their virgal sceptres to the terror of insubordinate juveniles - French juveniles be it understood; young America would laugh "Croquemitaine" and all his following to scorn.