Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. boxing, also wallup, whollop, wollop) in lit. or fig. use, a resounding blow.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 190: Wallup — a random hit, any where.
1829		Chester Chron. 9 Oct. 4/3: Now what could I do when I got such a wallop from him? I was obliged to give him a touch and so I touched him with a quart pot .
1868		‘Paddy Miles’ in My Young Wife and I Songster 59: Some blackguards would hit me a wollop.
1898		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley in Peace and War 176: I give it a wallop with me hammer.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 35: Susy get down tuh that kitching before I hand you a wallup that’ll curl yer hair!
1907		Lone Hand (Sydney) June 151/2: ‘I kin git a wallop inter it [i.e. a job of work] myself arter the ploughin’ done’.
1908		Chicago Journal 18 July in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 126: One of the grandest wallops ever scored.
1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 120: Th’ wallops it hands us whin we f’rget what we’ve been taught.
1913		H.G. van Campen ‘Life on Broadway’ in McClures Mag. Aug. 194/2: ‘Everybody had got to tellin’ about the wallops fate’d handed them’.
1917		R. Lardner ‘Three Kings and a Pair’ in Gullible’s Travels 73: So it was up to the management to get a wallop into the last act. It took them pretty near forty minutes to think of it, but it was good when it come.
1922		Broadway Brevities Aug. 19/2: [If he] is able to uncork a good wallop and won’t mind a ten dollar fine at 54th street — God has given him his chance!
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 94: These harsh words had hit the [...] family pride a frightful wallop.
1929		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 13 Apr. [synd. col.] The cinemas will never be able to reproduce that wallop which chorus girls supply on a stage.
1930		M. West Babe Gordon (1934) 176: It sure handed me a wallop, meeting you this way.
1933		C. Drew ‘Sledgehammer Joe’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 48/1: They called him Sledgehammer because he had a wallop that would skittle an Ayrshire bull.
1935		H. McCoy They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? in Four Novels (1983) 18: It was a hard wallop.
1942		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 17 Oct. 10: [of a critical letter] Now comes this wallop from Private George Sebastian.
1946		J. Evans Halo in Blood (1988) 229: You’ve taken an awful wallop and it hurts.
1948		J. Betjeman ‘Beside the Seaside’ in Sel. Poems No friendly wallop on the B.T.M. / No loving arm-squeeze and no special look.
1950		B. Spicer Blues for the Prince (1989) 43: He must have got an awful wallop.
1957		‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 7: That was a wallop that shook all the tiredness out of me. ‘You realize what the hell you’re saying?’.
1960		J. O’Donoghue In Kerry Long Ago 76: He’d hit him a wallop across the puss.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 347: The real whollop came [...] when I got a letter from Sol’s secretary telling me he was dead.
1979		Fantastic Four Annual 19: You already got a wallop that’s more than the Binaca blast!

2. (US Und.) a large bet.

1913

Sun (NY) 27 July 40/1: Finally the booster tells Mr Boob that it is time for a good wallop. With all the dough he sees carried around the pay-off joint it looks like he can win $50,000.

3. a try.

1914		R. Lardner You Know Me Al (1984) 141: Callahan says Well they is nobody out so go up and take a wallop.
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 26: I’ll never quit until I get another wallop at that stiff of a Brady.
2000		F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 94: ‘OK,’ Aisling shrugged. ‘Seeing as there’s champers going, I’ll give it a wallop.’.

4. a time, a share, a go.

1917		R. Lardner ‘Three Kings and a Pair’ in Gullible’s Travels 60: The whole down-stairs is five a wallop.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 180: He charged a fucking big wallop of dosh.

5. a success.

1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 19 Mar. [synd. col.] Fitzpatrick’s travelogue on Bombay is another wallop.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 250: Lovely wallop, it was. Done it a right treat, you did.
1956		‘James Updyke’ [W.R. Burnett] It’s Always Four O’Clock 25: A wallop—this boy. Within fifteen minutes even Walt was proud of the stranger we’d brought with us.

6. a severe punishment or prison sentence.

1959

Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 141: Selling to teenagers is the big wallop today. You can get the electric chair or go to the pen for life.

7. (UK drugs) cocaine [play on hit n. (3f)].

2009

R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 133: [H]aving trouble snorting the wallop through her weeny nostril.