pistol-whip vs work over

pistol-whip and work over both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
pistol-whip	No	No	Yes	No
work over	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, work over is a hypernym of pistol-whip; that is, work over is a word with a broader meaning than pistol-whip:

pistol-whip: beat with a pistol
work over: give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression

Other hypernyms of pistol-whip include beat, beat up.

pistol-whip (verb)	work over (verb)
beat with a pistol	give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression