strap (the)

noun, ‘strap’ [prec. by the] punishment by beating with a leather strap (COD); also used to refer to the strap itself; see also strap, v.

“I managed to get through without the strap, but I know Tom used to get it pretty regularly.”

“I never saw a strap before, until- I think I was the first one to get it. And I was in I guess grade two or three.”

“He had the strap. He just pounded everybody with the strap. He was putting the strap to him, and Len said that was enough of that, and he turned and he pounded him.”

“It’s sort of like a belt or…”
“Yeah, but it’s thicker. And so he would smack you on your hands. That’s the strap.”

“They sent me out there for twenty slugs or something. So I hand him the note, and he gets out the strap, and I said, ‘You might as well put that back in, ’cause’, I said, ‘you’re not going to do this to me’. He said, ‘And why would that be?’ ‘Because’, I said, ‘that’s not right. I did nothing that bad, and I’m not a person that will take that nonsense from you’.”

“I found this one down the basement, the ol’ strap. I was with her the day she bought the strap … And I wondered, what’s she getting that piece of leather or rubber belting for? I was the first to find out. But anyway, from then on ’til grade three, I knew every morning I was leaving home I was going to get the strap that day. One day in particular I got it three times.”