Link Centre Dictionary

whip

UK/ˈwɪp/ US/ˈʍɪp/ common slang uk
verb (6) noun (5)

verb

1.

beat severely with a whip or rod

  • “The teacher often flogged the students”
  • “The children were severely trounced”
Synonyms
2.

defeat thoroughly

  • “He mopped up the floor with his opponents”
Synonyms
3.

thrash about flexibly in the manner of a whiplash

  • “The tall grass whipped in the wind”
4.

strike as if by whipping

  • “The curtain whipped her face”
Synonyms
5.

whip with or as if with a wire whisk

  • “whisk the eggs”
Synonyms
6.

subject to harsh criticism

  • “The Senator blistered the administration in his speech on Friday”
  • “the professor scaled the students”
  • “your invectives scorched the community”
Synonyms

noun

1.

an instrument with a handle and a flexible lash that is used for whipping

2.
3.

a dessert made of sugar and stiffly beaten egg whites or cream and usually flavored with fruit

4.

(golf) the flexibility of the shaft of a golf club

5.

a quick blow with a whip

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English whippen, wippen (“to flap violently”), from Middle Dutch wippen (“to swing, leap, dance, oscillate”) and Middle Low German wippen (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Germanic *wippōną (“to move back and forth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyp- (“to shake; to swing”). (See Swedish vippa and Danish vippe (“to shake”)). The unetymological wh- is probably expressive of the sound of a whip; compare the same development in whisk and onomatopoeias such as whack and whoosh. The political senses are from whipper-in (“huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering”), from 18th-century hunting terminology.

Phrases

  • carpet whip
  • chain whip
  • crack the whip
  • double-line whip
  • Eastwood's whip lizard
  • fair crack of the whipdogwhip
  • ghost ride the whip
  • hunting whip
  • Irish whip

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.