Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also whack in) a share, a portion.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 83: Your third rate class of sharpers, when they have won a sum of money, if they should happen to refuse a brother sharper who is flash to the rig, and has been a by-stander, his whack, are instantly snitched upon; that is, the Snitcher follows the loser, and asks him what he will give him (the Snitcher) if he puts him in the way of recovering his money?
1791		H. Lemoine ‘Education’ in Attic Misc. 117: [of a group of condemned men] The dolman sounding, while the sheriff's nod, / Prepare the snitcher to dead hook the whack.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome IV 203: She’ll have a pretty whack of money!
1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West I 136: ‘That fellow, Short, [...] will expect his full whack, I suppose’.
1832		‘Battle of the Pigs’ in Quid 170: Each young grunter guzzled up his whack.
1842		Egan ‘By-Blow of the Jug’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 145: And ever anxious to get his whack – / When scarcely ripe, he went on the crack.
1845		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 Nov. 105/2: With a praiseworthy generosity of disposition, they both agreed to let him have a ‘whack in’.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 Sept. 3: James Tait [...] was to receive one guinea as his whack.
1852		Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: The coves says there’s a good time coming, and ven it does come, ve vill likely cop our whacks of it.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1866		letter in Bendigo Advertiser (Vic.) 12 Oct. 2/6: [T]he girls can come down and see the sweet stuff tucked in. I suppose the fellows would have the decency to give the petticoats their whack.
1875		‘Convict Phelosiphy’ in Stewart & Keesing (1957) 4: My name is poor Jack. / I done my whack / In sin and disepation.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 Apr. 2/1: The clergymen having had their little whack at vice, the old family physicians are now coming to the front [...] with outrages on women, cases of malpractice and varied deviltries.
1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 279: Whack, a share.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 16 Nov. 4/3: Takin’ it all through I ain’t done moren my wack [i.e in prison].
1895		Derby Mercury 9 Jan. 8/3: Well we goes into a pub, and Selby gives me my whack.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 94: Whack, a share of the plunder.
1899		C.J.C. Hyne Further Adventures of Captain Kettle 297: You go and do your whack at getting the people off that packet.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 Jan. 11/4: [He] will probably cut up for a bigger whack than his deceased friend.
1905		Sporting Times 4 Mar. 2/3: In these days, Alf, I notice you’ve got to be satisfied with yer proper whack, whether you’re a Great White Czar or only a pleadin’ cat.
1919		‘Sapper’ Mufti 64: I say, old Side-whiskers hasn’t given me my fair whack of beer.
1927		D. Hammett ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 310: When we find the pay-off’s a bust, I said to the kid I was training with, ‘Never mind, Kid, we’ll get our whack.’.
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 37: ‘I never give you your whack, did I?’ He handed the old man a couple of half-crowns.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 88–9: But O’Cannon’s a taxpayer. He pays his whack towards the upkeep of the State School.
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 208: I shall take up a gun and do my whack.
1950		‘Neville Shute’ Town Like Alice 225: All right, Mrs. Boong, we’ll each pay our own whack.
1959		F. Norman Fings I i: I’ve got ter bung the law their wack tonight an’ all.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 178: Just doing a half-hour show and getting some fat whack of money for it.
1968		J. Alard He who Shoots Last 4: Give me half ya wack.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 101: He wondered what [...] Scotty’s whack was.
1972		J. McNeill Old Familiar Juice (1973) 80: bulla: Every man has ter get his right whack, that’s Democracy, that is!
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 41: Right Whack Just deserts.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 487: Guy had promised substantial financial emoluments for the Grams – a great big whack of dough.
2002		S. Maloney Something Fishy (2006) 140: You’ll get your fair whack of the profits.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 12: I skimmed my whack off the top.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] If I gave her Billy’s full share in one whack, she’d blow it.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 126: ‘A’ll help yees the night but that’s yir whack’.

2. a swig of a drink, a gulp of food.

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 246: [note] The vulgar phrase of ‘I’ll have my whack, if it makes me sick!’ is in most of the above instances completely verified.
c.1865		‘Funny He-She Ladies!’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 157: On skilly and whack they might regale, / Those beautiful he-she ladies.
1876		Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly I 95: He was accustomed to call at the house every day about noon, accompanied by two gentlemen, who had their little whack. [...] ‘Little whack!’ thought Phyllis. ‘Little glass!’.
1897		W.S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1966) 36: ’Urry up an’ ’ave your whack.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 209: If you don’t mind, Mrs Peabody, I’ll have another whack at that steak. Make it thick and not so well done.
1922		‘Sapper’ Black Gang 291: I was beginning to feel I could do with another whack myself.
1944		O. Ferguson ‘Vocabulary for Lakes, [etc.]’ AS XIX:2 105: On whack means on rations, particularly the rations prescribed as minimum in the shipping articles.
1973		D. Ponicsan Cinderella Liberty 159: Forshay guzzles another whack of it.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We Have No 99: She [...] takes a whack at the rum.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 43: I light up and drag down a whole whack of thick spicy cigar smoke and hold it in.

3. (Aus./US) a bargain.

1862		Golden Age (Queenbeyan, NSW) 28 Aug. 3/4: He named a price for his steed, and on our declining to say, its ‘a whack,’ [...] looked at us reproachfully, adding that it hurt his feelings that we should refuse to trade.
1883		J. Hay Bread-Winners (1884) 142: Say the word and it’s a whack.

4. a ‘go’, a time.

1878		F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 59: Pard, it’s a whack!
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 June 26/2: St. Peter: […] ‘Why, just look, Michael, here’s a go! / Our luck is coming back; / Geewilikins! why this is good – / Two bishops at a whack!’.
1890		Sporting Times 8 Mar. 2/1: We perceived that our stake was ‘a sleeper,’ that is, the croupier had been too occupied to collect it, and so it was left down for the next whack, which was to be the last.
1900		Century mag. (N.Y.) Nov. 60: Lucky whack it was for me that I got here to-day, and in time to save the mine! [DA].
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 183: We thought we’d give you first whack at it.
1919		A. Baer Metropolitan Hotels 1 Jan. [synd. col.] Rip [van Winkle] knocked his snooze marathon off at one whack.
1935		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 193: For two-bits a whack / She’d lay on her back, / And let the cowboys ram it up her crack.
c.1940		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 215: There once was an Indian maid / Who was a whore by trade. / For a dime at a whack, / She’d lie on her back / And let the cowboys shove it up her crack.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 272: ‘Prescribed dose would be one or two fifty-milligram tablets. Three or four during a twenty-four period would be the most I’d permit.’ ‘But you gave her fifty at a whack,’ Captain Hernandez said.
1967		(con. 1950s) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 71: I’ll take first whack at her.
2004		(con. 1980) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 235: Harry got sentenced to a fresh whack of borstal.

5. (US) a try, an attempt.

1889		Wallace Co. Register (KS) 2 Nov. 3/4: Hugh Graham, too, has drifted back / [...] /To try for office another whack.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 118: He looked to her to be a Coming Congressman and she wanted to get a Whack at Washington Society.
1915		S. Ford Torchy, Private Sec. 11: Much obliged to you, Mr. Rowley, for givin’ us first whack at it.
1934		M. Fulcher ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 1 Sept. 12/3: I’ve been aching for a whack at Senor Malcolm’s column.
1957		W.R. Burnett Underdog 110: I’ve stayed away from the big game [i.e. high-stakes craps] since we got married [...] Now I’d like a whack at it again.
1970		San Diego Sailor 54: I wanted to get some rest so that I’d been in shape for another whack at it [i.e. intercourse] later on.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 35: I was in merry mood [...] as always when about to get another whack at Anatole’s cooking.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 5: Not that Edie wouldn’t have crawled nude across broken glass for a whack at John Jr.

6. (UK milit.) a period of enlistment.

1896

Regiment 25 July 263/1: ‘Thank God, my whack is nearly done,’ I have ‘heard many a Non-Commissioned Officer and Man remark, when perhaps they have had a ‘wheel’ or the Sergeant-Major has been down on them.

7. (UK und.) a rented room, i.e. a share of a house.

1935

Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 4: Furnished whack: Furnished rooms.

8. a range, a selection.

2012

(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘[B]loody scads of it [i.e. medical supplies]: bandages, saline, chloroform, morphine, the whole wack’.

9. (US) an aspect.

1957

‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 89: I’ve never been able to figure if the slang name [i.e. ‘rabbi’ = influential individual] has an anti-Semitic wack or not.

10. a large sum of money.

1988		R. Doyle Commitments 25: Five pounds, three and six pence. A fair whack in those days.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 54: Wack a large sum of money.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 213: The first thing he sees is the huge whack of money [...] $287,000.

11. (drugs) a portion of a drug, e.g. a ‘line’ of a narcotic, a puff of cannabis.

1943		W.R. Burnett Nobody Lives for Ever 28: His face got very pale. An almost unbearable depression settled over him. He needed a whack of the stuff.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 86: I take a whack, and it is good stuff [...] a surge of power flowing through me.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: Whack — Crack Cocaine; heroin and PCP; Crack/PCP mixture or marijuana laced with insecticides.
c.2003		D. Vrij ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 By day, and into the evening, heroin and powder cocaine were cheap and abundant, the $15 smack quarters, were fatter than the downtown 20s, all night long the flailers, could pick up on whacks of speed.

12. (Aus.) a bet.

1996

P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] It’s getting hard to find someone in the bush’ll take a decent-size whack.

13. income.

2002

J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 107: Got to be reckoning it just a faint possibility he never got his Volvo [...] off his inspector’s whack.

14. see whacker n.¹