Green’s Dictionary of Slang

enormous, very large; esp. ext. as adv. use whopping great.

a.1625		R.G. in Stanley Papers I Chetham Soc. 50: Our Chroniclers [...] stowed their volumes with wapping Tales of my Lord Maiors Horse.
1707		N. Ward Wooden World 98: He looks then most formidable [...] in his Fur-Cap and whapping large Watch-Coat.
1833		C.A. Davis Letters of Major J. Downing (1835) 67: We’ve only got one crib, and that’s a wappin one too.
1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 181: Two [...] of us had each a whapping great log.
1836		‘Joe’s Fine Concern’ Flash Casket 69: The rummy cod! / The wopping cod!
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 120: A wappin’ big man called Kentuckian.
1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. II 84: A whopping square of glass in the top and bottom.
1849		‘Prophecy for 1850’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 123: Prince Albert he is going to be a wopping big coal-heaver.
1851		‘How Sally Hooter Got Snake-Bit’ in T.A. Burke Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 69: The first thing she knowed she’d got onto the whappinest, biggest, rustiest yaller moccasin that ever you shuck a stick at.
1856		N.O. Weekly Delta 23 Nov. p.1 in A.P. Hudson Humor of the Old Deep South (1936) n.p.: We adjourned over to the nearest dead-fall, tuck a whoppin’ horn of Ball Face.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 25 July 4/1: A Wopping Egg — Mr Baker showed us an egg [...] which was seven inches in circumference.
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 9: He remembered Jackey Macauco, the murkarker, which used to fight at the Westminster pit, and was chawed up at last by a whopping big bull terrier.
1870		Old Hunks in Darkey Drama 5 49: Oh, dar’s such a whopping rat I see in dis berry room not five minutes ago.
1870		Burnot & Lloyd [perf. Arthur Lloyd] ‘The Fireman’s Dog’ 🎵 Mind, when I say a whopping dog, I speak about his size.
c.1880		[music hall song title] My Wopping Mother-in-Law.
1887		W.T. Call Josh Hayseed in N.Y. 99: What’s the use for you to try to git me to swaller that whoppin’ lie?
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 13 Sept. 2/1: She was a wopping big tom tart with a complexion like a secretary of a Labor Society.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 7 Sept. 4/2: They had whopping sticks / [...] I think the sticks were rather big.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 95: Wapping [...] great, of a very large size etc.
1898		Kipling ‘Stalky’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 27: You are such a woppin’ ass.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 369: He told a big whoppin’ lie.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 18 May 7/7: [headline] A Whopping big Score.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘Voice of the City’ in Voice of the City (1915) 4: What does this big – er – enormous – er – whopping city say?
1923		E. Pound letter 9 Feb. in Paige (1971) 186: Re the Gt. Novel – all that need be done re that Ladies’ Home Urinal is to put woppin gt. double sized quote marks before and after the quote.
1929		‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 240: They pay 1d per week for all their lives and get a whopping £60 funeral at the end.
1934		E. Caldwell Tobacco Road (1958) 25: I could have raised me a whopping big mess of turnips this year.
1940		A.P. Herbert Let Us Be Glum (1941) 25: Each word’s a whopping lie.
1959		M. Richler Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 235: He had thought Uncle Benjy gave her a whopping allowance.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 157: A whopping bonus for every day he’s under.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 129: Our fathers paid whopping fines and we three got off with suspended sentences.
1981		R. Dahl George’s Marvellous Medicine 16: He had a tremendous urge to do something about her. Something whopping.
1987		Eble Campus Sl. Spring 8: whoppin’ – large: I’ve got a whoppin’ cold.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 1 Aug. 7: Whopping great duck-billed platitudes.
1999		People (Sydney) 5 July 65/2: A pervy Pommy postie copped a year in the clink for stealing a whopping eight mailbags full of sex toys!
2008		Sun. Times (S. Afr.) 27 Jan. 24: The bar bill [...] alone was a whopping £35,000.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] [A] whopping great flat-screen television.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 307: We all went to the dance and had a whopping good time.