shellacking

[Ben Zimmer]

Obama's reference to the Democrats' electoral "shellacking" is the
inspiration for my latest Word Routes column:

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2479/

I've found the "beating" sense going back to 1924, in boxing circles.
Antedatings welcome, as always.

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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