Also (sense 2) Sc. wippen. [f. WHIP v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of striking with or as with a whip.
a. The, or an, infliction of corporal punishment by strokes of a whip or rod; scourging, flogging, flagellation; loosely, beating with the hand or otherwise, slapping, spanking. Also fig. chastisement, disciplinary correction; defeat, ‘beating’ (U.S. colloq.).
1566. Aldeburgh Rec., in N. & Q., 12th Ser. VII. 142/1. Pd for whyppynge of a man xiid.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 556. Vse euerie man after his desart, and who should scape whipping.
1630. Donne, Serm., Matt. iv. 18–20 (1640), 733. I am not bound … to teare my flesh by inhumane whippings, and flagellations.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. xvi. 110. To such a lad a frown may be a whipping.
1720. Swift, Mod. Educ., Wks. 1755, II. II. 34. Whipping breaks the spirits of lads well born.
1752. Chesterf., Lett. to Dayrolles, 18 Oct. Pray let my godson never know what a blow or a whipping is, unless for those things for which, were he a man, he would deserve them.
1866. Mrs. H. Wood, Elster’s Folly, xxxiii. She put him across her knee, pulled off an old slipper she was wearing, and gave him a sound whipping with its fat sole.
1880. Meredith, Tragic Com., xii. If a letter had been withheld by her father it was a part of her whipping.
1916. Edward Foord, in Contemp. Rev., Nov., 623. It is doubtful whether in the seventeenth century Russia could show anything much worse than the savage whippings of criminals which were the disgrace of England at that epoch.
b. gen. or in other connections, e.g., the driving of a horse, or spinning of a top, with a whip.
1577. Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., 119 b. It must be sene to, that they [sc. horses drawing together] be euen matched, least the stronger spoyle the weaker, while he dreadeth the rating, and whipping.
a. 1628. F. Grevil, Let. Hon. Lady, iv. Our flesh being like a Toppe which only goes vpright with whipping.
1796. Marshall, Planting, I. 150. The plants … will … become liable to lash each other’s tops, with every blast of wind. This evil is called whipping of tops.
1917. ‘John Oxenham,’ Loosing Lion’s Whelps, 21. Faces … bleached and sodden with the whipping of the wind.
c. Confectionery, etc. (See WHIP v. 7.)
1845. G. E. Day, trans. Simon’s Anim. Chem., I. 156. The blood contains a certain amount of fibrin,… which on whipping is separated in … stringy masses.
1854. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cr., iv. The whipping of creams, the stiffening of jellies, [etc.].
d. Angling. (See WHIP v. 8.)
1653. Walton, Angler, xi. 205. There is no better sport then whipping for Bleaks in a boat in a Summers evening.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 60. To initiate a young angler … by his whipping for them in a hot summer’s evening.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & Widows, v. What state is the river in?… Will it do for whipping?
e. (see WHIP v. 6 d, 14.)
1834. in Dk. Buckingham, Crts. Will. IV. & Vict. (1861), II. 115. I rather think the Government, as they knew they would be weak, considered it … best … to take no pains in whipping.
1880. Trevelyan, C. J. Fox, v. 196. It was an allusion which Burke made in the course of the evening to the industry of the Treasury officials that first rendered the term ‘whipping in’ classical.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 20 June, 6/2. The Government is entitled to whatever credit is due to a good piece of whipping.
1901. R. S. Warren Bell, Tales of Greyhouse, 48. Wardour, a trifle weary of the arduous task of whipping-in, had forged ahead.
1903. Times, 30 March, 7/6. Some extra zeal, it is true, would be necessary in the whipping-in of audiences.
2. The action of overlaying or binding with cord or the like wound closely round and round; concr. the cord, etc., so wound around something (or each turn of it).
1540. Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden), 4. Payd for whyppynge of roopes … viij d.
1673. Wedderburn’s Vocab., 38 (Jam.). Baculi caulis, the club shaft. Baculi maunbrium, the handle where the wippen is. Baculi filum, the wippen.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxii. ¶ 5. [He] whips the Cord again about the Page…, taking care that the several whippings lye parallel.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvii. (Roxb.), 117/1. The whipping of the string, is that part where the arrow is set on.
1770. Luckombe, Hist. Printing, 330. The lashings … will yield no longer to his whipping and pulling.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 28. For splicing an eye put on a good whipping.
1883. Man. Seamanship for Boys, 112. To whip the end of a rope … The turns of the whipping are always passed up towards the end of the rope.
1887. J. H. Keene, Fishing Tackle, 90. The whipping of hooks on gimp.
b. Needlework. (See WHIP v. 18.)
1814. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), I. 274. Tell Mrs. Haw … to prepare for plenty of hemming and whipping.
1866. Mrs. Whitney, Leslie Goldthwaite, ix. All kinds of stitches—embroidery, and plain over-and-over, and whippings, and darns.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 519. Whipping, a term … denoting a method of drawing up a piece of frilling … into gathers, by … sewing loosely over a delicately rolled edge of the same.
3. † a. = WHIP-GRAFTING. Obs.
1629. Parkinson, Parad., III. vi. 547. For whipping, the time is somewhat later then grafting in the stocke.
b. Hoisting with a ‘whip’ (WHIP sb. 15).
1835–6. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 87/1. There is no occasion in this case, in unloading a vessel of coals, to be confined to … what is called whipping.
1861, 1887. [see COAL-WHIPPING].
4. attrib. and Comb. a. in sense 1, as whipping-audit (AUDIT sb. 3), -bout, -day, etc.; whipping-bench, a bench on which offenders are laid to be whipped; † whipping-cheer (humorous), flogging, flagellation; whipping-girl (cf. WHIPPING-BOY); whipping-hand = WHIP-HAND; whipping-place, a place at which offenders are or were publicly whipped; whipping-pole = next; whipping-post, a post set up, usually in a public place, to which offenders are or were tied to be whipped; whipping-stock, (a) = prec.; (b) a person who is frequently whipped (cf. laughing-stock); whipping-top, a top spun by whipping; also fig.; whipping-trade (sarcastic), the occupation of a schoolmaster.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Char. Country-Comm.-man, Wks. (1687), 27. His Fate … is … a *whipping Audit, when he is wrung in the Withers by a Committee of Examinations.
1906. Crockett, White Plumes, xiv. The *whipping-bench and a good dozen spare rods are what they want.
1772. Nugent, Hist. Fr. Gerund, I. 160. Her husband had still the marks of a *whipping-bout.
1578. Whetstone, 1st Pt. Promos & Cass., IV. i. 2. She fearde of late, of *whipping cheere to smell.
1647. Herrick, Noble Numbers, Hell. Hell is the place where whipping-cheer abounds.
1683–4. Thamasis’s Advice to Painter, 40. For his Cheat, the Man will pay full dear, Condemned by my Lord to Whipping Chear.
1712–3. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 9 Jan. To-morrow … is his [sc. the Lord Treasurer’s] day when all the ministers dine with him. He calls it *whipping-day…. we do indeed usually rally him about his faults on that day.
1896. Daily News, 30 Dec., 5/1. There will always be a devotee ready to stand as *whipping-girl between him and the strokes of fate.
1906. Mrs. Croker, Youngest Miss Mowbray, viii. Ella did not speak; she did not even cry out, while she acted as the whipping-girl of her enemy.
1681. Hickeringill, Black Non-Conf., Postscr. Y. You have got the *whipping hand of him.
1631. Aldeburgh Rec., in N. & Q., 12th Ser. VIII. 427/2. The *whippinge place in the Markett.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Crim. Crts. Often have we strayed here, in sessions time, to catch a glimpse of the whipping-place.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, I. 360, note. In after times the Kåken, or *whipping-pole, stood on the Stortorg.
1600. Newe Metamorphosis (Nares). Be brought to th’ *whipping post … And as a rogue stande ready to be whipt.
1741. Tailfer, etc., Narr. Georgia, 37. Irons, Whipping-Posts, Gibbets, &c. were provided.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ii. He never was flogged, but it was a wonder how he escaped the whipping-post. Ibid. (1854), Newcomes, ii. No whipping post … could have been leaner than Mrs. Newcome.
1703. De Foe, Hymn to Pillory, 250. In vain he struggl’d, he harangu’d in vain, To bring in *Whipping Sentences again.
1615. Brathwait, Strappado (1878), 174. Send them to th’ *whipping-stocke.
1678. Penn, in Life, Wks. 1782, I. p. lxii. We have been as the wool-sacks, and common whipping-stock of the kingdom.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. i. (Rtldg.), 225. I am born to be the mere *whipping-top of fortune.
1885. T. Mozley, Remin., Towns, etc. II. 249. A boy’s whipping-top.
a. 1704. T. Brown’s Wks. (1711), IV. 185. By Nature meant, by Want a Pedant made, Bl——re at first profess’d the *Whipping-trade.
b. in sense 2, as whipping cotton, silk, twine.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine, French terms, Fisolle, or Ficelle, whipping-twine.
1887. J. H. Keene, Fishing Tackle, 102. A piece of gold tinsel is … secured by one turn of the loose whipping silk.
1893. Rosevear, Text-bk. Needlework, 208. Whipping cotton must be very … strong, and yet fine.
c. in sense 3 c, as whipping-hoist, -jigger.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Whipping-hoist, a steam hoisting-device for use in buildings.
1895. Daily News, 13 July, 5/4. On the wharf a crane lifting eight tons, fitted with ‘whipping jigger.’
