colloq. Also 8–9 Sc. whauk. [See prec.]
1. trans. To beat or strike vigorously, as with a stick; to thrash.
1721. Ramsay’s Poems, III. Gloss. Whauk, whip, beat, flog.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, III. 334. Many and many a good time have I whacked the Rascal’s Jacket.
1847. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, Introd. (1879), 3. The sheriffs … whacked each other soundly with their wands.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 225. When the husband loses his temper… he whacks his wife.
absol. or intr. 1852. C. W. Day, Five Yrs.’ Resid. W. Indies, I. 304. Whacking away, I finally severed his head from his body.
1898. Ménie Muriel Dowie, Crook of Bough, xxiii. 270. Her tough tweeds whacked on the ivory lintel.
b. fig. To beat in a contest.
1877. Holderness Gloss., s.v., Ah can whack him onny day at sums.
2. transf. and fig. Substituted for ‘put,’ ‘bring,’ ‘get,’ etc., with implication of vigorous or violent action; cf. knock up.
1719. Ramsay, 3rd Answ. to Hamilton, viii. Why should we … thole sae aft the Spleen to whauk us Out of our Reason?
1861. J. Barr, Poems, 154 (E.D.D.). A rotten stump my brain had rackit … Till Doctor Manning oot did whack it.
1872. C. King, Mountain. Sierra Nev., x. 219. If I design to paint a head, or a foot, or an arm, I get my little old Sarah Jane to peel the particular charm, and just whack her in on the canvas.
1897. Kipling, Captains Courageous, v. 115. When they whacked up a match ’twix’ his sister Hitty an’ Lorin’ Jerauld. Ibid. (1903), Their Lawful Occas., I. in Traffics & Discov., 117. Can we whack her [sc. a torpedo-boat] up to fifteen, d’you think?
3. [See prec. 2.] To share, divide. Also with up.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Wack, to share or divide any thing equally.
1821. Life D. Haggart (ed. 2), 94. We got twenty-two screaves by this adventure, which we whacked.
1888. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, xlviii. We hadn’t much trouble dividing the gold, and what cash there was we could whack easy enough.
