colloq. Also 8–9 Sc. whawk, whauk, 9 wack. [? Echoic: perh. an alteration of THWACK.]
1. A vigorous stroke with a stick or the like; a heavy resounding blow; also the sound of this.
1737. Ramsay, Sc. Prov. (1750), 13. As sair greets the bairn that’s paid at e’en, as he that gets his whawks in the morning.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, 477. Whack, a blow, a thump.
1832. Barrington, Pers. Sk., III. xviii. 242. I never saw a bone broken or any dangerous contusion from what they called ‘whacks’ of the shillelah (which was never too heavy).
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., lxxiii. Bill gave the boy two or three more hearty whacks, and then kicked him into the hosier’s shop.
1860. Thackeray, Lovel, v. Bessy’s ‘Ah!’ or little cry was followed by a whack, which I heard as clear as anything I ever heard in my life.
b. To have or take a whack at: to make an attempt or attack upon. U.S.
1891. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 22 June, 2/2. There are thousands … who … are anxious to have a whack, at the polls, at the party that deceived them.
1894. Advance (Chicago), 20 Dec., 418/1. Mother’s got over her long weak spell, and is able to take a whack at doings.
2. A portion, share, allowance; esp. a full share, a large portion or amount.
Chiefly in phr. to get, have, take one’s whack.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Whack, a share of a booty obtained by fraud.
1790. Alex. Wilson, in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876), II. 51. Whauks o’ guid ait-farll cowins Synet down wi’ whey.
1805. C. Paget, in P. Papers (1896), II. 162. My whack of prize money … will be about fifty thousand Pounds.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxxiv. ‘I’ll punish the port to-morrow.’… ‘I’ll take my whack to-day.’
1874. Slang Dict., 338. To go whacks, to divide equally; to enter into partnership.
1894. Astley, Fifty Yrs. Life, II. 119. He could not trust himself to take a fair whack of liquor without taking too much.
1918. Blackw. Mag., July, 43/2. I’ve had a run for my money this whack of leave.
b. A dividing up of accounts.
1885. Hornaday, 2 Yrs. in Jungle, xxiv. 284. When the Colombo rice merchants, shopmen, and hotel-keepers have their quarterly ‘whack-up’ with the government.
3. As int. or adv.: With a whack (in sense 1).
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., Archit. Atoms. Jill … bobbs plump against him, whack!
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, v. Whack came the cane on Johnny’s shoulders.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. ii. Whack, whack, whack, come his blows.
