the.com/whipping knot

means A small binding wrap of thread or twine wound tightly around the end of a rope to keep its fibers from fraying apart.

from From 'whip' in the old sense of binding something by wrapping cord around it tightly — the same sense survives in 'whipcord' and in sewing's 'whipstitch,' where thread lashes over an edge again and again. Sailors and ropemakers needed a name for this finishing wrap that seals a cut rope's end, and 'whipping' — describing the fast, repeated binding motion — stuck to the technique and then to the knot itself, well before 'whip' brought to mind anything to do with striking.