Corporal Punishment in UK & US

Corporal Punishment is the practice of hitting someone as a method of official punishment.
Corporal punishment is now illegal in schools in the US and the UK. In the past, boys used to be punished in this way more often than girls. They were usually hit on the hand or the buttocks with a strap (= long thin piece of leather) or belt, a cane Br E (= a long thin stick) or a paddle Am E (= a piece of wood with a handle).

Did you know?

Spare the rod and spoil the child is an old saying popular especially in the 19th centruy in Britain, meaning that children need to be punished by being hit in order to grow into well-behaved adults.