Also 6 wepit, whippett, 9 whippit, wippet. [? partly f. WHIP sb. or v. + -ET, partly f. WHIPPET v.]
† 1. ? Some light wine. Obs.
c. 1500. Blowbol’s Test., 50 (MS. Rawl. C. 86 lf. 107 b). Good drynke he louyd better than he did wepit. Ibid., 337. 112 Malmasyes, Tires, and Rumneys,… Whippett and Pyngmedo.
2. A lively young woman; a light wench; now dial. a nimble, diminutive or puny person.
1550. Crowley, Epigr., 1331. All modeste matrons I truste wyll take my parte, As for nice whippets, wordes Shall not come nye my hert.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, Wks. (Grosart), III. 158. Those worthlesse Whippets and Iack Strawes hee could get, he would seeme to enable and compare with the highest.
1597. Breton, Wit’s Trenchmour, Wks. (Grosart), II. 15/1. Why, quoth this Whippet, if I should tell you I loue you [etc.].
† 3. A sudden brisk movement. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 431. As soone as ever [the dog] seeth [the rost] taken from the fire, he giveth a whippet from his wheele.
4. A small breed of dog; now spec. a cross between a greyhound and a terrier or spaniel, used for coursing and racing, esp. in the north of England.
With the earliest examples cf. WHAPPET.
a. 1610. Healey, Theophrastus (1616), 75. If a little dog or whippet of his dye, ô hee makes him a tombe.
c. 1615. W. Goddard, Mastiff Whelp, G 3. Too loude thou barkest Whelpe, I must haue whippets now, that doe but yelpe.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Dogge of Warre, Wks. II. 232. The little Curre, Whippet, or House-dogge.
1645. Milton, Colast., 26. If a man cannot peaceably walk into the world, but must bee infested … with bauling whippets, and shin-barkers.
1665. in Sporting Mag., XLII. 10. To seize … all such greyhounds, beagles, or whipperts [sic].
1841. Hartshorne, Salopia Antiqua, 614. Whippet, a dog bred betwixt a greyhound and a spaniel.
1884. St. James’s Gaz., 18 Oct., 6/2. I found a man training a wiry racing-dog…. The ‘whippet’ strode along with great earnestness.
attrib. and Comb. 1885. Bazaar, 30 March, 1260/3. Fawn whippet bitch for sale.
1894. F. Lloyd, Whippet & Race-Dog, viii. 45. The National Whippet-racing Club. Ibid., xi. 73. A most important personage on the Whippet-track is the clerk of the scales.
b. transf. Mil. The Medium Mark A ‘tank,’ a light kind of ‘tank’ used in the war of 1914–8. Also called chaser.
1918. Times, 15 Aug., 7/6. The capture of Morlancourt, where light Tanks or whippets were used.
† 5. A little whip. Obs. rare–1.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farm, I. xxviii. 132. He shall not vse anie thing else to ride him [sc. horse] with, saue onely his whippet and trench.
† 6. ‘A short light petticoat’ (Forby). dial. Obs.
Hence Whippeteer, Whippeter, a person who keeps a whippet (sense 4); Whippeting, sb. the breeding, training, etc., of whippets; a. engaged in this.
1894. Sir J. Astley, Fifty Yrs. Life, II. 337. The principal whippeteers are colliers in Lancashire.
1894. F. Lloyd, Whippet & Race-Dog, vii. 44. Everything connected with Whippeting. Ibid., ix. 58. Some Whippeting people. Ibid., xxiv. 174. Common names have been given by Whippeters to the dogs.
