Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to make someone suffer, i.e. to beat fig.

1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 164: whup, v. To vanquish, to punish, to tire. ‘That whups me,’ ‘I’m clean whupped out.’.
1969		H. Rap Brown Die Nigger Die! 44: They came down and started talking bad to the brother who’d whupped the white boy.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 65: She’s whooping him with you. They’re both insecure.

2. to attack, to beat up; also attrib.; thus whupping n.

1910		N.Y. Tribune 11 Sept. 7/2: How would it do to whoop a lot of them up to Siberia [...] that’s purty high.
1931		Wesley Wilson & Harry McDaniels ‘She Shakes a Mean Ashcan’ 🎵 She weighs two hundred in her stocking feet; / She can whup any policeman that walks the beat.
1939		J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath (1951) 154: On’y way you gonna get me to go is whup me [...] An’ I’ll shame you, Pa. I won’t take no whuppin’.
1945		Botkin Lay My Burden Down 230: You all free [...] We don’t whup you no more.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 175: I’d rather not be whupped [...] if I got my rathers.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 92: They whups me up something terrible and carries me to jail. / The judge don’t want the public to know how they fucked up my head, so he ups and denies my bail.
1972		N. Algren ‘The Last Carousel’ in Texas Stories (1995) 129: Keep movin’, tin-can cop! [...] or I’ll come down there ’n whup you!
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 79: My brothers cain’t whup all dese niggers.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 169: The world was badly in need of a treatment center for whup victims.
1987		Kid ’n’ Play ‘Last Night’ 🎵 I tell you what / If my toes wasn’t hurtin’ I’d whup your butt.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 325: You shouldn’t need [....] a wrecking ball whuppin’ you upside the head.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 183: My mum [...] used to whoop us like we was war criminals.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 171: ‘He just started whupping her [...] beating her up’.
2002		Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 whoop v. 1. To beat up. ‘You mad doggin me? I’ll whoop you so bad your cousin will cry!’ 2. To beat someone in a sport. ‘We whooped their team 126 to 57!’.
2008		in J. Miller Getting Played 99: ‘Ima whoop your ass!’.
2014		C.T. McNeely ‘Assisted Living’ in ThugLit Sept. [ebook] The Russians already got themselves whooped by my brother.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 118: ‘Then these two men [...] whoop your prospects’ collective asses’.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 15: A bad behavior’s if you scream when a CO whupping yo ass like a Betty Crocker fudge cake.

3. to defeat, e.g. in a competition.

1943		R. Chandler Lady in the Lake (1952) 49: There’s a couple of good boys running against me this time and I might get whupped.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 275: If’n ever’ coolie in China worked at nooky ’round the clock they couldn’t make enough Chinks to whup us.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Whup ass 1. (verb) To defeat someone or something. 2. (verb) To be rowdy.
2002		Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 whoop v. [...] To beat someone in a sport. ‘We whooped their team 126 to 57!’.
2019		C.D. Rosales Word Is Bone [ebook] ‘Come on. You whooped him already’.

4. to punch.

1955		E. Hoagland Cat Man 49: [H]e’d whup the ground and duckwalk round and round.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 260: whup [...] 2. Hit.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 22 Aug. 12: People [...] stayed up to watch him whup Liston or Frazier and they knew that something special was going on.