# Figging > A practice involving prepared ginger root, used for the burning it produces. Defined here for completeness, along with the reason this site does not cover it. - Canonical URL: https://consensualspanking.co.uk/glossary/figging/ - Section: A–Z - Updated: August 2026 (2026-08-01) - Audience: consenting adults over 18 only. Everything on this site concerns consenting adults over 18. This entry exists because people search for the word and deserve a straight answer about why it is absent from the rest of the site. The reason turns out to be a useful principle in its own right. --- ## In short - Figging uses a piece of prepared ginger root for the burning sensation it produces. - The site defines the term and does not cover the practice. - A safe word only works where stopping is available. Anything applied rather than delivered keeps working afterwards. - It is a chemical irritant on delicate tissue, and there is no way to dose it or take it back. ## What it means Figging is the use of a piece of prepared ginger root for the burning sensation it produces on contact with delicate tissue. The word appears in older corporal punishment folklore, usually attached to claims about horse dealing and Victorian discipline that are repeated far more often than they are checked, and it turns up in modern kink writing as well. That is the definition, and this page deliberately goes no further. How it is prepared and what is done with it are not described here. ## Why the site does not cover it Two reasons, and the first is the more interesting one because it applies well beyond this single practice. Everything on this site rests on the assumption that a scene can be stopped within a second. That is what a safe word is: an instrument that works because the hand stops, the implement goes down, and the position ends. Red is only meaningful where stopping is actually available. Anything applied rather than delivered breaks that. The active compounds in ginger are absorbed into tissue and go on working after anything is removed, which means the person receiving is left with a sensation that neither of them can switch off. Saying the word does not undo it. That is a different category of thing from an implement, and it does not fit inside a negotiated scene however appealing it looks written down. The same objection applies to topical irritants generally, to ice held long enough to injure, and to anything swallowed. See [safe words](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/guide/safe-words/). The second reason is plainer. It is a chemical irritant on thin, absorbent tissue with no way to measure the dose, no reliable way to rinse it off, and a meaningful risk of a burn and of infection in an area where broken skin is already the least forgiving thing you can produce. See [where it is safe to strike](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/guide/where-it-is-safe-to-strike/). ## Where people go wrong Assuming that because a thing is old it is understood. Most of the historical claims attached to this one are unsourced, and the age of a practice tells you nothing about whether the people doing it in 1890 had any idea what they were risking. And treating the absence of a practice from a site like this as squeamishness. It is not a judgement about anybody who does it. It is that I write about things I can describe safely and stand behind, and this one fails a test I apply to everything else. > **The general test.** Before anything new goes into a scene, ask what happens if she says red halfway through it. If the honest answer is that it carries on regardless for the next twenty minutes, you have found something that does not belong inside a negotiated scene, whatever it is called. ## Read next - [Safe words](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/guide/safe-words/) - [Where it is safe to strike](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/guide/where-it-is-safe-to-strike/) - [Edge play](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/glossary/edge-play/) - [My limits](https://consensualspanking.co.uk/limits/) ## Common questions ### What is figging? Figging is a practice involving a piece of prepared ginger root, used for the burning sensation the root produces on contact with delicate tissue. The term turns up in older corporal punishment folklore and in some modern kink writing. This site defines the word and does not cover the practice. ### Why does this site not cover figging? Because it fails the test everything here is built on. A safe word works because stopping is available within a second, and anything applied rather than delivered carries on working after the point at which somebody wants it to stop. Saying red does not undo it. It is also a chemical irritant on tissue that cannot be dosed, rinsed off cleanly or predicted.