Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a blow, a beating.

1825		‘I am a Knowing Blade’ in Universal Songster I 16/2: In talking of his rupees I was devilish bold / And then I got a wacking — and a wacking lot of gold.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 30 Jan. 6/2: ‘Before I go, I’ll give him a jolly good whacking!’.
1842		Flash (NY) 25 Sept. n.p.: How that dandy coachman liked the whacking he got in the cellar in Ann street.
1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Mar. 3/2: A foreman, who had no power to administer a whacking.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 115: whack, or whacking a blow, or a thrashing.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 93: I called to my mind the most severe whacking I had ever received, with how much it hurt.
1874		‘Fair Play for Tichborne and Kenealy’ in Henderson Victorian Street Ballads (1937) 44: When he gets out there is no doubt / He’ll give his foes a whacking.
1880		‘Erro’ Squattermania 281: ‘I only want to give yer a whackin’,’ said Brown making another dart at him.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 94: Whacking, a beating.
1897		Boy’s Own Paper 13 Nov. 107: Let him off, or keep the whacking till I am out of the way.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 13 Dec. 9/2: Lilla W. gave Norah W. a good old whacking [...] Did you not feel sore [...] Norah?
1922		E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 41: Fancy, practically two whackings in a morning; one on the knuckles and one on the – and the other.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 108: The Sky is giving a big bass drum such a first-class whacking that the scat band in the chop-suey joint can scarcely be heard.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 401: The miscreant receives what is variously termed a bashing, [...] walloping, whacking.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 22: But, know something – must [sic] chicks like a whacking once in a while.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 40: At one time, if a con screamed [...] that the police had given him a whacking [...] the magistrate or judge dismissed it out of hand.
1982		Beano 26 June 5: Min had to have her whacking.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 233: What do you find but four lads come in to give you a whacking.
2006		in D. Seabrook Jack of Jumps (2007) 65: Whackings . . . Whitehead now admitted he had assaulted her on at least four occasions.

2. a murder.

1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘[H]e never wanted that whacking solved’.
2000		F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 166: Because I am doing the whacking we now split the money seventy per cent for us, thirty for you, agreed?