Also 6–7 thwacke, thwak, 6, 8 dial. twack. [app. echoic, from the sound of beating vigorously: see sense 1.
But it may have been altered from the earlier THACK v.2, orig. to pat, to clap, but in 1480 used of showering blows, the initial thw- expressing more forcible effort than th-; the sense ‘clap’ might also pass easily into sense 3 here, which does not easily arise out of 1.]
1. trans. To beat or strike vigorously, as with a stick; to bang, thrash, whack.
a. 1530. Heywood, Johan & Tyb (Brandl), 31. I shall bete her and thwak her.
a. 1535. More, in Wordsw., Eccl. Biog. (1818), II. 123. Now I will speak but three words, and I durst jeopard a wager that none here [on the Continent] shall pronounce it after me: ‘Thwarts [? error for Thwaites] thwackt him with a thwitle.’
1560. Ingelend, Disob. Child, G ij. Beynge full often with the staffe thwacked.
a. 1626. Middleton, Mayor of Queenb., V. i. Take all my cushions down and thwack them soundly.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, IV. vii. To snatch the cudgel … that he might thwack Lewis with it.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, I. iv. To see two sturdy fellows thwack and belabour each other with quarter-staff, single-stick, or fists.
absol. 1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 43. Flailes lustily thwack, least plough seede lack.
b. fig. To ‘beat’ in a contest, to defeat severely.
1607. Shaks., Cor., IV. v. 189. Here’s he that was wont to thwacke our Generall, Caius Martius.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., ii. What adventurous knight ever thought of the lady’s terror, when he went to thwack giant, dragon, or magician,… for her deliverance?
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., ii. If we count three before the come of thee, thwacked thou art.
c. intr. To fall with a thwack or sharp knock.
a. 1851. Moir, Winter Wild, vii. To the quaking sheet below, Down thwacks he, with a thud like thunder!
2. trans. To drive or force by or as by thwacking or beating; to knock (down, in, out, etc.). Also fig.
1566. Drant, Wail. Hierim., K iv. To thwacke downe walles, to even them with the flore.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 37. Wee’l thwack him hence with Distaffes.
1743. Lond. & Country Brew., II. (ed. 2), 126. Beating or Thwacking the Yeast into working Ale or Beer.
1906. Outlook, 22 Sept., 374/1. If Busby’s rhythmic rod thwacked Latin metre into the head of more than one poet.
3. a. To clap; to clap together, to pack or crowd together (things or persons); to clap down.
1589. Fleming, Virg. Georg., II. 24. The bushie thornie fields, Where many grauell stones be thwackt.
1610. Bp. Hall, Apol. Brownists, 14. [He] thwacks fourteene Scriptures into the margent.
1641. Milton, Animadv., ii. Wks. 1851, III. 208. Who would have thought a man could have thwackt together so many incongruous similitudes?
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 151. The shruff, moss and hair, that the nest was thwackt together of.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 25. Many of them being thwackt together into one Room, they are not a little straitned.
1760. [see THWACKING vbl. sb.].
1902. Daily Chron., 17 Feb., 7/5 [Prisoner in Police Court]. I don’t care what you say; thwack me down three months’ [hard labour] in the book, quick.
† b. intr. (for refl.) To crowd (to a place). rare.
1652. Brome, City Wit, II. ii. All the wise wenches i’ the Town will thwack to such Sanctuaries, when the times are troublesome.
† c. trans. To pack or crowd (a thing or place). Const. with something. Obs.
Much used in this sense from c. 1585 to 1700.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 85. Weau’d wurcks thwackt with honor.
1588. A. Munday, in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), I. 229. He that had his barnes so thwakt, And bade his soul take rest.
1607. J. Carpenter, Plaine Mans Plough, 15. The field was thwacked with thornes, tares, and noysome weeds.
1667. Waterhouse, Fire Lond., 103. Its Streets were … thwack’d with Carts, pester’d with Porters.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 58. We could discern the River to be thwacked with small Craft.
† d. intr. (for passive) To be packed or filled full.
1650. Howell, Giraffi’s Rev. Naples, I. 114. The Church … was as full as it could thwack in thick multitudes.
4. The verb-stem in combination with a sb.: thwack-coat a., that thwacks the coat; thwack-stave, a quarter-staff, a cudgel.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 126. To be sold at the signe of the Crabbtree Cudgell in Thwackcoate Lane.
1857. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., II. 504. Every bodily exercise,… the footrace or the gallop, single-stick or thwackstave, spear or sword.
Hence Thwacked, ppl. a. a. beaten; † b. packed, crowded (obs.).
a. 1670. Hacket, Serm. Incarnation, vii. Wks. (1675), 64. Let two or three be gathered together in his name…; but if you will multiply those two or three to hundreds … of souls, O then his desire is upon … those thwackt congregations.
