Green’s Dictionary of Slang

whack v.1

also wack

1. (also whack into) to hit.

[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 20: Blast my eyes! if I don’t whack him.
[Ire]M. Shackleton ‘To Sarah Shackleton’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 368: And, prithee, very soon have done / With whacking Mary Shackleton.
[Ire] ‘Hush Cat from under the Table’ Songs (publ. Monaghan) 4: And ever since that she never cry’d stop, / But whacking the cat from under the table.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 305: I will lend a hand to whack ’em.
[UK] in Egan Bk of Sports 155: Jack Baker whacked his own father.
[UK]Egan ‘Bould Yeoman’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 137: But said he I will not down you, if you will but disburse / Your rowdy with me, yeoman – I’m content to whack your purse!
[UK]J.S. Coyne Pippins and Pies 29: The three Bumpsteads, who whacked the three biggest boys in the school one morning.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Aug. 3/2: He got in again through the window and whacked me.
[UK] ‘Dizzy’s Lament’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 105: I dreamt that I was whacked with a birch.
[UK] ‘International Boat Race’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 146: He wack’d the moke till he made him start.
[UK]G.R. Sims Dagonet Ballads 104: ’Twas a lie; bless your soul, why he’d whacked her and kicked her night, morning, and noon.
[Scot]Dundee Courier (Scot.) 9 June 7/4: In three rounds he was done for. After that the rest let me alone, for the chap I’d whacked was reckoned the best man among them.
[US](con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 111: If everybody don’t go just so he whacks their heads off.
[UK]Albert Chevalier ‘Wot Cher!’ 🎵 Pals start whackin’ him, when down he drops, Someone says he wasn’t made to go.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 94: Whack, [...] a blow, to beat.
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 20 Oct. 37: I whacked him as hard as I could with an empty football bladder.
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 25 Sept. 3/2: I then go home and whack her / [...] / It’s the only way to keep a blanky tart .
[UK]H.G. Wells Kipps (1952) 19: Sid was whacked, but, as he explained, he wore a newspaper tactically adjusted during the transaction.
[Aus]E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 241: Down comes Fuzzy, ’n’ whacks into it agin.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 6 July 12/7: He did thump and whack her awful. / Beat her body black and blue.
[UK]Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 41: [He] said he didn’t think he had ever seen such a fine day, and whacked his leg with his stick.
[Aus]N. Lindsay Age Of Consent 217: She was whacking at Cora with a ragged length of paling.
[UK]N. Marsh Final Curtain (1958) 64: ‘You can’t whack me,’ she shrieked.
[Aus]Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 24: She’s whacking into the old girl like the devil.
[Ire](con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 323: The bleeding screw [...] w’acks ’im over the arse.
[UK]R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 24: The slag [...] start grassing even before they’ve been whacked.
[US](con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 104: If I ever hear you say another bad word, I’m gonna whack your behind.
[US]T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 214: All I did was see the motherfucker whack that sucker.
[UK]N. Cohn Yes We have No 129: She’d have given anything to whack him.
[US]W. Shaw Westsiders 189: He’d whack any man that came near her.
[US]L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] Jasper followed him into the bathroom and whacked him again.
[US](con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 19: ‘You didn’t have to whack him like that’.

2. (US) to lie.

[US]J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 163: whack, v. To lie. ‘He’s a-whacking all right.’.

3. to criticize.

[US]A. Bierce letter 3 Dec. in Pope Letters of Ambrose Bierce (1922) 113: Yes, I was sorry to whack London, for whom, in his character as author, I have high admiration, and in that of publicist and reformer, a deep contempt. Even if he had been a personal friend I should have whacked him.

4. to hit in fig. sense, e.g. to sentence to prison.

[UK]A. Binstead Mop Fair 138: I seemed to get whacked every time as I went the bundle.
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper XL:1 20: You’ll never whack her up more’n seven knots.
[UK]K. Amis letter 4 Oct. in Leader (2000) 294: Do whack these 2 requirements to me soon.
[US]H.S. Thompson letter 10 Nov. in Proud Highway (1997) 292: That bastard Ed the mailman whacked me with a bill for $76.
[Ire]J.B. Keane Letters of Irish Parish Priest 54: I don’t mind a person having a drink and a bit of a sing-song but this whacks all.
[US]G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 161: Then I whacked him with Greenan and Magro.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 144: Trepanian whacked Joe with the expected maximum of three years.
[UK]K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 5: He’d whack it all in a extra big Head bag and cart it up through Priory Wood to Freddie Woan’s.

5. (also whack out) to defeat in a competition, to outdo.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 14/4: Though you had the King’s army, and we were only a lot of farmers, we whacked you!
[UK]G.R. Bacchus Maudie 52: ‘Youi’ve fair whacked me this time, petlet,’ he gasped.
[UK](con. 1928) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 90: ‘Going to beat everybody’ [...] ‘Going to whack everybody. Got a new punch like Tunney,’ Johnny added darkly.
[UK]A. Sillitoe ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 35: I’ll get you trained so that you whack every man in the Free World.
[US]K. Brasselle Cannibals 85: She whacks him out in cards, tennis, skiing, you name it.
[Ire]C. Brown Down All the Days 147: Ah you can’t whack the oul songs, girls. Such lovely words.
[UK]J. Sullivan ‘A Touch of Glass’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] I’m a great fan of the Byzantine period myself. I don’t think you can whack ’em you know.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 25 Sept. 1: Watson’s gonna get whacked.

6. (also whack out) to murder, to kill; also fig.

[US]D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 73: If you get whacked, or get shot at, or get in a beef, it will be bad luck.
[US]‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] Sit tight, whoor, an’ nobody gets whacked.
[US]K. Brasselle Cannibals 25: Here was the biggest man in television getting ready to whack out his best friend.
[US](con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 39: Colored lady whacked out her husband [...] Dropped a fifty-pound watermelon on his head.
[US](con. 1970s) J. Pistone Donnie Brasco (2006) 326: Find out. Whoever gives us the snitch, we’ll pay. Then we’ll whack out the snitch.
[US]Pileggi & Scorsese Goodfellas [film script] 53: You got out of line, you got whacked.
[UK]Guardian Rev. 20 Aug. 11: Notorious B.I.G. got whacked.
[UK]Guardian Rev. 4 Mar. 3: I tried to whack myself out with pills... All I got was sick.
[US]C. Stella Charlie Opera 64: Why the fuck a pair of detectives are talking qwith a guy I’m supposed to whack out.
[US]C. Hiaasen Skinny Dip 235: That’s two girls you whacked. What’s up with you.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 16: They whack a guy, leave the body so it’ll be found.
[Aus]L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] The police think the Red Devils found and whacked him.
67 ‘Waps’ 🎵 Don’t make a phone-call, get a man whacked.
[US]D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘Half North Manhattan wants to whack us’.
[UK]M. Herron Joe Country [ebook] ‘[H]e has no reason to want to whack the head of the Service’s steering committee’.
[US]D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 70: [A] video of herself whacking some guy.
[Aus]A. Nette Orphan Road 113: ‘Everyone was tense, always worried about getting whacked’.

7. (US, also whack off) lit. or fig., to cut or chop.

[US]E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 43: It’s pretty tough when a man will take a hatchet and whack his arm off.
[US]E. Wilson 20 Mar. [synd. col.] Let’s talk about her losing weight [...] ‘How‘d you happen to whack it off?’ I asked.
[US]P. Munro Sl. U. 203: whack [...] 2. to cut (hair).
J. Lasenby Dead Mans Head 152: Uncle Ted [...] whacked him off another slice.
[US]T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 10: ‘FUCK YOU, PIG!’ said one disciple, grabbing his sword and whacking the head off a Roman Centurion.

8. to masturbate.

[US] in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 523: I was tooling along, / Just a-whacking my prick.
[US]R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 188: It was whacking your pud.
[US]‘Victoria Parker’ Incest Schoolgirls 🌐 Mr. Davidson whacked his cock, pumped his prick, drubbed his dick.
[US]College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Wack [...] 4. (verb) To beat your meat; to jack off; to masturbate (male).
[US]S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 70: A horn honked [...] Pete jumped and looked around guiltily, as if he’d been whacking.

9. (US drugs) to dilute or ‘cut’ a narcotic.

[US]R. Woodley Dealer 69: Coke will only take so much whackin. It may be good coke, but it’s whacked to the bone by the time you get a twenty-dollar spoon.
[US]H. Feldman et al. Angel Dust 179: The drug is ‘cut’ or ‘wacked’ with up to fifty per cent of an additional nonintoxicating substance.
[US](con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 36: He produces a baggie filled with yellowish powder [...] and points to the white powdery lactose that he ‘whacks’ (mixes) it with to get shake.
[US]Barer et al. Betrayal in Blue 143: [W]hat we had tested 94 percent pure cocaine. At that purity rate I was able to ‘step on it,’ ‘cut it,’ or ‘whack it’ quite a bit.

In compounds

whackhouse (n.)

a brothel.

[UK]S. Hugill Sailortown 25: The majority, in all truth, nothing more than prostitutes from the dens and whackhouses of the London waterfront.
M. Richardson Fits & Starts 198: We must imagine the unfortunate Marquis arriving [...] by Hispano-Suiza caravan, fitted up, I daresay, as a luxurious whackhouse on wheels.

In phrases

whack it (v.) (also whack at it) [fig. use of whack v.1 ]

to masturbate.

[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 822: whack it – Self-abuse. Masturbation.
[US]L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 237: Imagine Kennedy [...] whacking it to Miss July once in a while.
[US] in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 271: What a cock! What a cock! / He spent his life whacking it, / What a cock!
[US]J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 19: They tell me if it falls off, you keep whackin at it like that.
[US]Rolling Stone 14 Oct. 🌐 Keeping up with Trump revelations is exhausting. By late October, he’ll be caught whacking it outside a nunnery.
whack it in (v.) (also whack it up)

of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 117: Exe[acute]cuter. To copulate; ‘to whack it up.’.
[UK]A. Crowley Snowdrops from a Curate’s Garden 23: Take out that bald-headed hermit! (he interrupted himself) Whack it up! Wollop it in!
G. Lee True Love 177: She thinks she’s so good; she doesn’t need any silly old man to maul her, to whack it up her. Why? Because she’s so far up herself.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 409: The whack that is a vigorous blow also having given rise to whack it up, British slang from ca. 1900 for copulation.
[UK]K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 185: A charming piece of graffiti caught her eye: ‘Never mind the love and passion; whack it up her doggy-fashion.’.
whack it to (v.)

(US) to attack aggressively.

[US]McCook Trib. (NE) 3 June 5/3: Hurrah! Hurrah! we’ll whack it to old Spain.
whack it up (v.)

(Aus.) to do something energetically.

[Aus]Aussie (France) VIII Oct. 14/1: Then look at those pongos who dolled themselves up as W.A.A.C’s and tooted down to Paris. [...] Of course, there was a bust-up all round, and the roar of the mix-up that naturally followed brought up a whole platoon of Red-caps. The W.A.A.C’s are still whacking it up on pack-drill!
whack out (v.)

to destroy.

[US]L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 54: You could whack it out in two days with the antibiotics.
[US]W.D. Myers ‘A Story in Three Parts’ in 145th Street 124: The Man could collar the heavies but if they did they would just let the dogs looseand the bust would be wacked out .
whack the crap out of (v.)

(orig. US) to beat hard.

[US]L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 3: My father would [...] whack the crap out of me.
T. Vradenberg Liberated Lady 226: But in his fantasy it sure felt good to whack the crap out of her, like he felt she had emotionally done to him.
HWM Mag. Sept. 76: Hell Knights can whack the crap out of you and fire plasma in your face.