Green’s Dictionary of Slang

very large, or powerful of its type; also as adv.

1866		‘Mark Twain’ letter 30 July in Letters (1917) I 115: The first few days we came at a whooping gait – being in the latitude of the ‘North-east trades.’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 7 Jan. 2/3: Whenever my my wife makes a proposal that is distasteful to me, I at once approve of it most enthusiastically, and pretend to be whooping mad to put it into practise.
1900		C.J.C. Hyne Filibusters 263: You were whooping mad with it.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 88: ’Odgson [...] was then lyin’ in ther City cells, whoopin’ delirious.
1916		J. Lait ‘Heritage of the Suffering Brother’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 203: Bill courted her in his wild, whooping way. He borrowed or stole or won the money to buy her shiny gifts.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 771: Here was a guy who did not give a good whooping Goddamn.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 30 Jan. 2: Oxygen is spending a whooping £300m on original programming.