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Caning is a form of Corporal Punishment consisting of a number of hits (known as "strokes" or "cuts") with a single Cane usually made of Rattan, generally applied to the offender's bare or clothed buttocks or hands (on the palm).

Caning can also be applied to the soles of the feet (Foot Whipping).

Application of a Cane to the knuckles or the shoulders has been much less common.

The size and flexibility of the Cane and the mode of application, as well as the number of the strokes, vary greatly — from a couple of light strokes with a small Cane across the seat of a junior schoolboy's trousers, to 24 very hard, wounding cuts on the bare buttocks with a large, heavy, soaked Rattan Cane as a judicial punishment in south-east Asia.

The thin Cane generally used for Corporal Punishment is not to be confused with a Walking Stick, sometimes also called (especially in American English) a "Cane", but which is thicker and much more rigid, and more likely to be made of stronger wood than a thin Cane.

* See also: Eᴅɢᴇ Pʟᴀʏ, Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ Pʟᴀʏ, Pᴀɪɴ Pʟᴀʏ and Sᴇɴsᴀᴛɪᴏɴ Pʟᴀʏ.

Caning was a common official school and judicial Pᴜɴɪsʜᴍᴇɴᴛ in many parts of the world in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Corporal Punishment (with a Cane or any other implement) has now been outlawed in much, but not all, of Europe.

However, today Caning remains legal in numerous other countries in home, school, religious, judicial or military contexts, and is also in common use in some countries where it is no longer legal.

Caning may also be a part of Consensual Sᴀᴅᴏᴍᴀsᴏᴄʜɪsᴍ activities between adults.

Caning with a heavy judicial Rattan of the Singapore/Malaysia kind can leave scars for years, at any rate where a large number of strokes are inflicted.

However, this should not be confused with an ordinary Caning with a typical light Rattan (used at home for Punishing children), which, although painful at the time, would leave only reddish welts or bruises lasting a few days.