A glance at The Superior Person’s Book of Words sent me scurrying to a dictionary to find out what vapulation means—or at most meant, because the word is hardly current now and probably never was. Even as far back as 1828, Noah Webster noted in his dictionary that vapulation was no longer in use, but he nevertheless defined it as ‘the act of beating or whipping.’ The 1913 Webster’s repeated that definition and likewise called the word obsolete, but also noted that it came from the Latin verb vapulare, which a Latin-English dictionary translates as ‘to get a whipping, to be flogged, to be beaten.’ As an example of how this rare word has been used, consider this passage from Derek Hudson’s 1943 book Thomas Barnes of the Times:
According to the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española, Spanish borrowed Latin vapulare as the almost unchanged vapular, though the variant vapulear is now apparently the usual form; the dictionary gives its first meaning as ‘zarandear de un lado a otro a alguien o algo,’ i.e. ‘to shake or knock someone or something from side to side.’ A second meaning is ‘golpear o dar repetidamente contra alguien o algo,’ i.e. ‘to hit or strike someone or something.’ The verb has the figurative sense ‘to criticize harshly’ (which accords with that of vapulation in Thomas Barnes of the Times). The corresponding Spanish noun vápulo is ‘a whipping, flogging, beating, shaking’; Cervantes used the word twice in Don Quijote.
As for the English verb vapulate, it appeared in the 1806 Dictionary of the Synonymous Words and Technical Terms in the English language. Author James Leslie included it as one of many words meaning ‘to beat.’ Here’s the full list, which I trust will be a pleasure and not a vapulation for you to read: “To pommel, to bang, to sugillate, to tew, to thwack, to trounce, to vanquish, to vapulate, to repercuss, to buffet, to curry, to firk, to fease or feaze, to lamm, to bray, to drub, to baste, to batter, to maul, to nubble, to belabour, to bump, to cane.”
I first investigated vapular/vapulate in 2011. In doing a search now, five years later, I was surprised to find a page on the Internet that raises the question of the difference between beat and vapulate. I’m sure that question comes up a lot.
© 2016 Steven Schwartzman
Spanish-English Word Connections 
Aug 07, 2016 @ 21:47:18
The first meaning of the word, “to shake or knock someone or something from side to side,” is a perfect description of what I saw an alligator doing to prey of some sort yesterday morning. He had his breakfast in his jaws, and kept plunging it underwater, where he’d shake it from side to side while the creature struggled to get free.
Had it not been for a second alligator lurking around, watching the proceedings and watching me, I might have tried for some photos. As it was, I decided to leave the vapulator and his friend in peace, and went off to look at some birds.
Aug 07, 2016 @ 22:06:02
In that instance I’d say you did right to let prudence be the better part of valor.
Aug 08, 2016 @ 08:18:56
A few select individuals come to mind who could use a strong vapulation.
Note: The auto-correct feature on my iPad did not succeed in offering the word. The closest it got was valuation. Not the same.
Aug 08, 2016 @ 08:31:52
Maybe your iPad was trying to do a valuation of the word vapulation.