mauled

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
maul/mɔːl/

▶verb

• 1 (of an animal) wound by scratching and tearing.

  ■ handle or treat savagely or roughly.

• 2 Rugby Union take part in a maul.

▶noun

• 1 Rugby Union a loose scrum formed around a player with the ball off the ground. Compare with ruck1.

• 2 another term for beetle2 (sense 1 of the noun).

– derivatives
mauler noun.

– origin ME (in the senses ‘hammer’ and ‘strike with a heavy weapon’): from OFr. mail, from L. malleus ‘hammer’.