drubbing
noun

- a beating or serious defeat, especially in a sports competition

- a beating, as with a stick or cudgel

The Cambridge Dictionary / Collins Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

When drub first appeared in English in 1625, it referred to a method of punishment that involved beating the soles of a culprit's feet with a stick or cudgel.

Two origins of "drubbing" have been proposed: (1) from the Arabic ḍaraba meaning "to beat, to hit”, or (2) from the Proto-Germanic verb drubbōną, related to Old Norse drepa (to strike, slay), Old Frisian drop (a blow), and Old High German treffan (to hit).

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DRUBBING AT WEIRD EVENTS

1. Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling

Once a year, people living in the Cotswolds region of England hold a racing event that involves rolling a Double Gloucester cheese from the top of Cooper’s Hill and a crowd of people racing down to see who will catch the cheese first. This competition’s fame has spread, with foreign competitors and spectators joining in on the fun.

2. Chess Boxing

In Finland, boxing and chess are mixed together. Players play a round of chess, then a round of boxing, and then chess again, until 11 alternating rounds have been played. It’s the ultimate combination of brain and brawn.

3. Camel Wrestling

You may have heard of cockfighting, pitbull fights, and even bullfights. The aforementioned are all extremely cruel and usually involve the death of one of the animals. But in camel wrestling as it is done in Turkey, all is well because there are no blood spills, no casualties, and no guilty feeling in the end. The match is decided when either one runs away or falls to the floor hard.

4. Worm Charming

This legitimate sport in the UK has been so popular to others that it even has a world championship event being held in Cheshire every year. The rules are simple. Competitors are given a patch of land, usually 3×3 meters, and are challenged to use any possible methods of bringing out as many worms as they can within 30 minutes.

5. Bed Racing

Bed Racing is a sport that started in 1965 and was only played by members of the American military. However, as time went by, Bed Racing became more popular around the world. The object is to reach the finish line before other competitors. There have to be six players for pushing and another one should be on the bed. The bed should also have the ability to float as the final hurdle involves crossing a stretch of water.

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SYNONYMS

bested, biting the dust, brought to one's knees, come off second-best, conquered, crushed, defeated, down (in flames), DRUBBING, floored, hammering, knocked out, licking, on the ropes, outfoxed, outgunned, outplayed, overcome, overpowered, overthrown, overwhelmed, rout, routing, ruin, shellacking, skinned, thrashing, trouncing, undoing, vanquishing, walloping, whipping

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a sentence, say something like:

“DRUBBINGS are important life lessons,… probably more than victories.”

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