Past tense of cowhide; to beat or whip someone with a cowhide whip or strap.
From cowhide (leather whip) + -ed (past tense marker). The verb developed from the noun as cowhide became a standard punishment tool.
School discipline was brutal—teachers legally cowhided students into the early 1900s, and 'cowhiding' appears in period newspapers as a normal (if controversial) punishment.
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