Green’s Dictionary of Slang

whack n.2

also wack
[whack v.1 ]

1. a blow, usu. with some form of stick; thus constr. with the, physical violence see cite 1914).

[Ire]J. O’Keeffe Sprigs of Laurel 14: He gave her a smack. / He gave me a whack.
[UK]J. Poole Hamlet Travestie II iii: He’ll soon be here: — then let him have his whack: Tell him he’ll bring a house upon his back.
[UK]Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 Sept. 269/1: [W]hat a beautiful whack between the peepers he had given his friend Phelim O’Shaughnesy at a little bit of a blow up on the road.
[UK]Egan Bk of Sports 263: [note] Now this brought on a general fight, Lord, what a gallows row — / With whacks and thumps throughout the night.
[US]Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 2 July n.p.: [F]eel the whacks of our editorial cudgel .
[UK]J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 139: I pardons the whack on account of the wisdom that moved the whacker.
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 115: Whack, or whacking a blow, or a thrashing.
[US]‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward in London in Complete Works (1922) 439: ‘I’ll fondle him with a club,’ I anserd, hitting him another whack.
[US]W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 401: I’d give yer a whack in the face if yer offered to take any advantage of me out here.
[US]G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 147: Every whack brought blood and a heavy fall.
[UK]G.R. Sims ‘Pickpocket Poems’, Dagonet Ditties 93: Whack came a couple of stingers — / Two beauties — and right on my lug.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 94: Whack, [...] a blow, to beat.
[UK]Punch 28 Feb. 157/3: To deal another whack on the head to a floundering Opposition.
[US]F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 176: WE give him th’ same threaty rights he’d give us, a dhrink an’ a whack on th’ head.
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 18 Sept. 5/4: There was a young man named Jack [i.e. Johnson] / Who was said to deal out the whack.
[UK]N. Douglas London Street Games 42: Each one has to have a wack with the tolly wack (a handkerchief with a knot in it).
[UK]‘Sapper’ Black Gang 359: I got a whack on the back of the head from something.
[US]H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 156: She gives him a resounding slap in the face, such a whack as would knock a proofreader spinning.
[US]W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 12 Mar. [synd. col.] A. Woollcott spent lots of time getting under the skin of actors, but once in a while he took a whack at himself.
[UK]P. Pringle Boy’s Book of Cricket 67: ‘It was a lovely whack,’ he declared.
[US]J. Thompson Alcoholics (1993) 76: Doc’s hand came down on his back with a resounding whack.
[UK]R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 58: She’d get bird in [...] to take the whacks for a tenner.
[US]E. Tidyman Shaft 72: He considered giving the door a solid whack.
[UK]Beano 3 Apr. 20: Give him a hard whack with my feather duster.
[Aus]R.G. Barratt ‘Who’s Jack of Robbo?’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] He’s never been drunk, never copped a whack on the chin, never had his dabs taken.
[UK]J. Cameron It Was An Accident 73: There was a whack like terrible down the bottom of my back from behind.
[UK]N. Griffiths Stump 96: Someone’s gunner pay [...] Some fucker’s gorrer take the whack.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] Half full of bourbon and livened up from the whack on the jaw.
[UK]K. Richards Life 62: He did something and I just gave him a whack.
[US]M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 84: That was a hell of a lot to remember. Especially considering the whack he took.
[Scot]A. Parks Bobby March Will Live Forever 212: ‘There was blood everywhere. Must have given you some whack’.
[US]J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 94: Which gang of convicts or COs would take the next whack? Would these particular scumbuckets finish her off?

2. a second-rate or inexperienced coachman [his reliance on the whip].

[US]Morn. Call (S.F.) 23 May 11/1: Slang from London Streets [...] An inexperienced Jehu may be either a ‘gardener’ or a ‘whack’.

3. (US Und.) a prison sentence.

[US]W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 297: You could get used to anything, even being without women and doing a long whack in solitary.
J. McNeill Chocolate Frog (1973) 23: Shirker: Yer got yer mate two years for his whack...’n six months for yerself!
[Aus]B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] They were going to take him back to Victoria when he finished his whack up here.

4. (Scot./Aus.) a punishment, one’s deserts.

[Aus]Smith & Noble Neddy (1998) 117: My half-brother Edwin, who had pleaded guilty to heroin charges, was sentenced to 10 years for his trouble. Right whack for him.
[Aus]M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 95: Just ask Kevin Taylor. Oh, I forgot, you can’t. He got his right whack in Pentridge.

5. (drugs) the act of diluting bulk drugs, e.g. heroin, for retail sale.

[US]Pileggi & Scorsese Goodfellas [film script] 105: I had to get to Robin’s house to give the package a whack with some quinine.

6. skill, ability.

[UK]D.S. Mitchell Killer Tune (2008) 24: Now everyone wanted a slice of his lyrical whack.

7. (Scot.) speed.

[Scot]A. Parks May God Forgive 42: ‘Bloody lorry must have been going at some whack’.

In phrases

cop one’s whack (v.)

(Scot./Aus.) to get one’s deserts.

[Scot](con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 117: Youse are goaney cop yir whack.
[Aus]M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 134: [photo caption] Shaking hands with Slim Minogue on the spot where Alex copped his whack.
go to whack (v.)

to collapse, to break down (lit. and fig.).

[US]R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 577: go to whack, v. To fall into bad condition. ‘He has been in bad company so long that he has all gone to whack.’.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Nov. 16/1: There’s nothing to pay – well, not for many a day! / Things may go crack, go to whack – / What’s it matter, Happy Jack / Has got back.
out of whack

lit. or fig. off-centre, out of true, out of order, feeling unwell.

[US]J.W. Davis Gawktown Revival Club 18: ‘Call my voice bunged up?’ he croaked [...] ‘Yours is teetotally out of whack.’.
[UK]A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 146: At last he utterly gets his thinker out of whack and goes back to the villa.
[US]G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 146: The pump was out of whack.
[US]D. Hammett ‘Dead Yellow Women’ Story Omnibus (1966) 184: The Whistler [...] had boats and booze and waiting customers, but his landing arrangements were out of whack.
[US]D. Runyon ‘Blood Pressure’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 88: My blood pressure is all out of whack.
[US] in W.C. Fields By Himself (1974) 385: They get it all out of whack and like Humpty Dumpty when he falls off the wall, it’s pretty tough to get him back together again.
[US]H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 175: My radio’s out of whack.
[US]‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 45: Your sleep is being knocked out of whack by mysterious phone calls.
[US]T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 176: The superheterodyne had been out of whack since November 1938.
[US](con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 111: The phone’s outta whack, so don’t call me later because it don’t ring this end.
[US]D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 255: The best football player in America is sittin’ down there [...] with his head out of whack.
[Aus]L. Davies Candy 136: My body’s all fucked up and out of whack because of this fucking drug.
[US]T. Piccirilli Fever Kill 125: He [...] didn’t know if her brood helped put things into perspective or just knocked them farther out of whack.
[US]D. Swierczynski California Bear 321: The slightest movements sometimes threw her entire equilibrium out of whack.
put the whacks on (v.)

(US und.) to pressurize.

S.F. Examiner (CA) 27 June 13/1: Put the Whacks On — Put on pressure.