Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see drink on the whip under drink v.

see under drink v.

see drink on the whip under drink v.

(Aus.) at a disadvantage.

1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Aug. 36/1: Phæbe had the picnic under the whip. She domineered over the assemblage, [...] flushed with power, and still eager for mischief.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 31 Jan. 9/1: Ern B. is under the whip since he went back with his old Largs Bay tart .

(Aus.) when the action begins.

1906		‘Banjo’ Paterson Outback Marriage 243: ‘No fear,’ said the old man obstinately, ‘The boco’s one eye’s worth any horse’s two. Me an’ the boco will be near the lead when the whips are crackin’.’.
1955		H.G. Lamond Towser the Sheep Dog 270: Take tea with ’em: be there at the finish of a long run [...] Whips are Cracking: see ‘Take tea with ’em.’.
1960		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Sept. 16/3: In more-closely-settled areas the dogs don’t understand the command, ‘Go bogey’, which used to send my outback hounds streaking half a-mile to the nearest waterhole. But don’t worry – they’ll be there when the whips are cracking.
1977		R. Beilby Gunner 116: I’ll be there when the whips’re crackin’! I’ll keep up with you blokes if I hafta crawl!

1. nervousness, depression.

1944		F. Owen (ed.) Bedside Bonanza : [F]or a while I have a case of the whips-and-jingles, but by the time the plane three-points at the Glendale airport, I am pretty well sold on the idea.
1978		H. Hood in Sat. Night 50/1: ‘Gave me a severe case of the whips and jingles when I heard the word’.
1982		Car & Driver 26 163: The method that now seems to be emerging — ‘when it’s ready we’ll put it on the market’ — while sure to give the marketing men whips and jangles [etc].
1988		‘Carter Dickson’ And So To Murder 103: ‘Got the whips and jingles?’ ‘Yes.’ Tilly [...] assumed a look of secrecy and mysteriousness.
1994		J.D. Shachter Loose Shoes 129: Naturally, he’s [...] suffered the blues — what he calls ‘the whips and jangles’.
2019		D. Ainsworth In Extremis 137: ‘[T]he sight of my naked body would give him the whips and jangles’.

2. (US) withdrawal from alcohol or narcotics; thus in weak use, a hangover; also attrib.

1954		Maurer & Vogel Narcotics and Narcotic Addiction.
1962		H. & J. Backus What are You Doing After the Orgy? 117: I was caught in the morning with a severe case of the ‘whips and jangles’.
1965		Evergreen Review 8 32-34 45: [He] drank Mescal Triunfo [...] and shot the roof of his house full of bullet holes. Pard tells a story about waking one morning in Naco, all hung over, with the whips and jingles.
1965		W.W. Turner Drugs & Poisons 8: Periodically, he will be involved in some sort of a ‘panic,’ being unable to ‘score’ for his drug for one reason or the other, placing him in a state described by addicts as ‘the whips and jingles’.
1975		J. Roe Same Old Grind 12: Bernie, the sax man, this morning as every morning afflicted with the whips and jingles,.
1979		S. Mooney Mooney’s Practical Guide to Running a Pub 156: No one yet has died of the whips and jangles, but everyone who has them suspects he might become the first recorded fatality.
1986		R. Spears Sl. & Jargon Drugs & Drink 545: whips and jangles (also whips and jingles) symptoms of withdrawal from alcohol or narcotics.
1986		Schlaadt & Shannon Drugs of Choice 163: There is additional documentation of withdrawal symptomatology, including delirium tremens, hallucinations, shakes, sweats, whips-and-jangles seizures, and so on.
2000		M. Stone Totally Dead 24: ‘case of the old whips and jangles today, huh? [...] You know, you've been overdoing it pretty often lately’.
2013		P. Bowen Kelly and the Three-Toed Horse [ebook] I drunk it down and in about fifteen minutes the whips and jangles had gone.