Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. of obects, large, first-class, showy.

1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 501: Whereon she plac’d a spanking dish, / Then fill’d it full, but not with fish.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 289: Half the sum of money one of them are everlastin’ monsters cost would equip a dozen spankin cutters.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 21 Feb. 1/3: Smith put in a spanking hit on the jaws.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 217: They ought, all of them, to make spanking fortunes.
1873		Sl. Dict. 303: Spanking large, fine, or strong, e.g., a spanking pace, a spanking breeze, a spanking fellow.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) III 489: I often used to think of the spanking posteriors and full crisp-haired cunt of Bessie while operating on Kit.
1897		‘F. Anstey’ Baboo Jabberjee BA 1: The supernal and spanking hand of Hon’ble Mr Punch.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 Dec. 1/1: Her spanking bathing gown was the attraction of the season.
1913		H. De Lisser Jane’s Career (1971) 4: Everyt’ing was spanking, man!
1929		‘Ellery Queen’ Roman Hat Mystery 53: The Inspector gave the boy a spanking slap on the back.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 186: Fight died in her before the spanking self-assurance of Mrs James, former servant to her hostess.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 343: He could go off [...] and find His supper waiting in the kitchen, and everything going proper spanking.
1960		H.E. Bates When the Green Woods Laugh (1985) 281: She was a girl of spanking bosom.
1989		J. Hibberd Memoirs of an Old Bastard 22: The vintage of 1983 is proving to be a spanking one.
1997		(con. 1950s) J. Byrne Slab Boys [film script] 22: Grinding out those spanking shades for our designer chappies.
2002		R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 149: Grace [...] dipped her head and proceeded to give him a spanking blow job.

2. of people, dashing, lively.

a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Jack in his Element’ in Collection of Songs II 64: I’ve a spanking wife at Portsmouth gates, / A pigmy at Goree.
1800		‘The Sailor’s Consolation’ in Jovial Songster 44: Spanking Jack was so comely, so pleasant, so jolly.
1831		Satirist (London) 30 Oct. 235/3: I am a spanking butcher, sirs, as any in the trade, / And all the ladies do avow there's not a sharper blade.
1867		‘Spanking Jack’ in Champagne Charley Songster 53: [as cit. 1800].
1877		‘Jack in his Element’ Sea Songs of Old England 4: I’ve a spanking wife at Portsmouth Gates [...] A black in St Lucie.
1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 231: Spankin’, dashing, bold.
1893		N.H. Kennard Diogenes’ Sandals 169: She and Job Yetts [...] made a ‘spainken’ couple.
1913		E.L. Warnock ‘Terms of Approbation And Eulogy’ in DN IV:i 23: spanking. Fine, up-to-date, jolly. [...] ‘She is a spanking girl.’.

3. of horse or vehicular movement, moving fast or vigorously; also of a horse, fast; used in context of horses as a collective n. in cit. 1951.

1738		H. Bracken Farriery Improved (1756) II 167: He goes by the Name of Spanking Roger [OED].
1794		Sporting Mag. Oct. V 5/2: I was coming at a good spanking rate from St. James’s Cock-pit.
1802		G. Colman Yngr Poor Gentleman IV i: There are four spanking greys [...] that shall whisk us to town in a minute.
1837		‘Nights At Sea’ in Bentley’s Misc. May 477: The comb of the sea did just the same thing when the frigate was walking along at a spanking rate.
1841		Dickens Old Curiosity Shop (1999) 305: A very spanking grey in that cab, sir, if you’re a judge of horse-flesh.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 40: Reilly the butcher has two or three capital dogs, and there’s a wicked mastiff below stairs, and I’ll send for my ‘buffer,’ and we’ll have some spanking sport.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 204: To dash away in a brave ship over the blue billows with a spanking breeze.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 75: The coachman shook up his horses, and carried them along the side of the school [...] the wheelers in a spanking trot.
1866		H.L. Williams N.-Y. After Dark 21: Away the set go at a spanking trot.
1870		W.W. Fowler Ten Years In Wall Street 43: A pair of spanking bays, tandem, whirled him to the Park in a tall Belmont, with a flunkey in livery.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Aug. 3/4: One of the prettiest turn-outs in town is that of the A.D.C.— a four-wheeled dog-cart and apair of spanking roan ponies—the ribbons being well handled by young ‘Gas’.
1888		H. King Savage London 373: A smart dog-cart, with a spanking gray horse, rolled along the road swiftly.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 3 June 563: There is nothing a sailor delights in more than a drive behind two spanking horses.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Nov. 11/1: Rattle his bones over the stones! [...] The black coffin-box was taken away at a spanking trot. I was in hopes the horse would gallop, just for the good of my bile.
1914		Joyce ‘The Dead’ Dubliners (1956) 204: A fast drive with a good spanking goer between the shafts.
1940s–50s		‘Flann O’Brien’ ‘The Other Way’ in Hair of the Dogma (1989) 54: He had one gear which would propel the car forward at a spanking 4 m.p.h.
1951		(con. 1910s) S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 3: It was with what Katie called ‘a spanking of bays’.
1967		J. Schaefer Mavericks (1968) 132: Loyal horses that took his carriage along any road at a hoof-slapping spanking gait.

4. resounding, punishing.

1863

Sporting Life 28 Feb. 3/4: Ruff again planting a spanking blow.

5. (US campus) exciting.

1999

Eble Campus Sl. Nov.