kur·bash (ko?or?b?sh)n. A whip, traditionally made of hippopotamus hide and used for punishment in parts of the Middle East, especially in Egypt from Pharaonic times until the early 1900s and in the Ottoman Empire.tr.v. kur·bashed, kur·bash·ing, kur·bash·es To punish with a kurbash.[Ultimately (partly via French courbache) from Arabic kurb?j, from Turkish k?rbaç, whip, probably alteration (perhaps in imitation of a cracking whip) of earlier *k?rmaç; akin to Azerbaijani k?rmaç, g?rmanç : perhaps k?r-, stem of k?rmak, to break, break down (resistance), Old Turkic q?rmaq, to cut, break + -maç, n. suff.; akin to Old Turkic -maç.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.kurbash (?k???bæ?) n (Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) a hide whip, used as an instrument of punishmentvb (tr) (Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) to whip (someone) with a kurbashCollins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014