Noun
whack (plural whacks)
- The sound of a heavy strike.
- Synonym: thwack
- The strike itself.
- Synonym: thwack
March 26 2023, David Hytner, “Kane and Bukayo Saka combine against Ukraine for England’s perfect Euros start”, in The Guardian:Saka was a threat from the first whistle; Ukraine rightly wary of him and dishing out the usual whacks.
- The stroke itself, regardless of its successful impact.
- (US, slang) An attempt, a chance, a turn, a go, originally an attempt to beat someone or something.
1989 April 15, Jon Autiello et al., “Police Cruisers Smash Queers”, in Gay Community News, page 5:The number arrested is not over 600 — at $805 a whack, New Jersey has made half-a-million dollars arresting gay men.
C'mon. Take a whack at it.
40 bucks a whack.
- (originally UK cant, somewhat dated) A share, a portion, especially a full share or large portion.
1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter 2, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1 (The Wild), page 16:“It’s damned tame, whatever it is, comin’ in here at feedin’ time an’ gettin’ its whack of fish.”
1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VII, in Capricornia, New York: Appleton, page 108:“ […] O'Cannon's a taxpayer. He pays his whack towards the upkeep of the State School up in town—”
1951, Katherine Mansfield, Letters to John Middleton Murry, 1913-1922:For one thing I had a splendid supper when I got on board—a whack of cold, lean beef and pighells, bread, butter ad lib., tea, and plenty of good bread.
2014, Anthony Pritchard, Grand Prix Ferrari, page 203:There were problems over the installation of the engine and the handling. The team had paid top whack for the two Coopers, but the company gave them no help at all.
- (obsolete) A whack-up: a division of an amount into separate whacks, a divvying up.
- (US, obsolete) A deal, an agreement.
It's a whack!
- (dated, disco-era drug slang) PCP, phencyclidine (as also wack).
- (typography, computing, slang) The backslash, ⟨ \ ⟩.
- del c:\docs\readme.txt
- Delete c colon whack docs whack readme dot text.
Translations
A blow, impact or slap
- Bulgarian: силен удар m (silen udar)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 重擊/重击 (zh) (zhòngjī), 猛擊/猛击 (zh) (měngjī), 打 (zh) (dǎ)
- Dutch: klop (nl) m
- Finnish: mäjäys (fi), täräytys, isku (fi), läimäytys
- French: coup (fr) f, clac (fr) m
- Galician: pancada (gl) f, mocada f, tombo (gl) m, zoupada f, zuco m, trambullón m, tordeón m
- German: Schlag (de) m, Hieb (de) m
- Italian: colpo (it) m
- Japanese: please add this translation if you can
- Russian: уда́р (ru) m (udár)
- Spanish: porrazo (es) m, trompazo m, cebollazo m
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Verb
whack (third-person singular simple present whacks, present participle whacking, simple past and past participle whacked)
- To hit, slap or strike.
The bat whacked the baseball.
1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198:Therefore he whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of his people watched him, thunderstruck, till some man, - I was told the chief's son, - in desperation at hearing the old chap yell, made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man - and of course it went quite easy between the shoulder-blades.
- G. W. Cable
- Rodsmen were whacking their way through willow brakes.
- (slang) To assassinate, bump off.
- Synonym: clip
2008 April 29, Rockstar, Grand Theft Auto 4, Take-Two Interactive, level/area: Flatline:Niko Bellic: So you want me to talk to him? / Jimmy Pegorino: I want you to whack him! And after that I want you to kill all the other rats I surround myself with...
2023 August 30, Megan K. Stack, Rob Stothard, “He Was Shot 14 Times at the Dinner Table. His Children Want to Know if Britain Ordered the Hit.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:Ken Barrett, a loyalist gunman who eventually confessed to killing Mr. Finucane on orders from the paramilitary Ulster Defense Association, told a BBC investigative reporter, John Ware, that when he’d expressed reluctance about “whacking” a solicitor […]
- (transitive, slang) To share or parcel out (often with up).
to whack the spoils of a robbery
1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, volume 2, London: G. Newbold, page 152:When the sewer-hunters consider they have searched long enough […] the gang […] count out the money they have picked up, and proceed to dispose of the old metal, bones, rope, &c.; this done, they then, as they term it, “whack” the whole lot; that is, they divide it equally among all hands.
- (sports) To beat convincingly; to thrash.
- 2012, Ryan Pyette, Majors, Panthers play mind games, The London Free Press:
- The fidgety Majors were whacked 9-1 by the Kitchener Panthers at Couch and now trail their rivals 2-0 in an increasingly uncomfortable best-of-seven Intercounty Baseball League first-round series.
- (UK, chiefly in the negative) To surpass; to better.
2012, Steve Cullen, Total Flyfisher:Recently I was over in Ireland, I love the place, proper fishing, can't whack it!
- (Singapore, Singlish) To attempt something without necessarily having the skills and knowledge required to do so; to take on a task hastily and carelessly without planning.
2007 September 17, “Composite Functions – Anyhow Whack Time!”, in exampaper.com.sg:Miss Loi always tells her students not to anyhow whack, stay calm and know thy approach before attempting each question.
Adjective
whack (comparative whacker, superlative whackest)
- Alternative form of wack (“crazy”)
That's whack, yo!
2007, Joyce E. Davis, Can't Stop The Shine, page 51:As they joked about the big butts on female celebrities and what rappers had the whackest lyrics, Malcolm paid little attention to Kalia besides squeezing her hand or grabbing her arm to hold himself up […]
References
- Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "whack, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1923.