fair crack of the whip

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English

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Pronunciation

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Interjection

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fair crack of the whip

  1. (Australia, colloquial, informal) Fair go, fair suck of the sauce bottle; used as an appeal for reasonableness.
    • 2007 July 19, john smith, “Dumb Referee”, in aus.sport.rugby-league[1] (Usenet):
      Like you mean the non interference of the officials with the knockon from Soward and not called and the knockon from Chase which eventuated in a try to the Dragons not called, fair crack of the whip mate, see both sides of the coin, not the one you want to see.
    • 2011, Peter McAra, The Vintner's Letters, unnumbered page:
      Fair crack of the whip, mate. We′ve had bacon and eggs for a week.’ He coughed noisily. ‘And you expect a man to jump out of bed for bacon and bloody eggs.’
      ‘What would sir prefer? Soufflé au Parmesan? Or a swift kick up the backside?’
    • 2011, Michael Lawriwsky, Hard Jacka: The Story of a Gallipoli Legend, unnumbered page:
      “Now, straighten up!” The men shuffled into position.
      “Come on, sir!” pleaded one of them.
      Fair crack of the whip mate”, Nugget said.

Noun

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fair crack of the whip (plural fair cracks of the whip)

  1. (UK, colloquial, informal) An equitable opportunity to achieve something; a fair go.
    • 1927 March 7, “Mr. J. H. Thomas And Trade Unions”, in The Times, London, England, page 16:
      We believe it is our duty to help these people, because we don't think they are getting a fair crack of the whip.
    • 1993, William Trethowan, interviewed, in Greg Wilkinson (editor) Talking About Psychiatry, page 43,
      I never thought the Department of Psychiatry had a fair crack of the whip during my time in Birmingham. I was promised facilities, a new unit for psychiatry, none of which came to pass.
    • 2001, Terry Hodgson, The Plays of Tom Stoppard: For Stage, Radio, TV and Film[2], page 86:
      Yet style for Stoppard is not, as he feels it was for Oscar Wilde, the means and the end: ‘I′m not a writer who doesn′t care what things mean ... but despite myself I am a kind of writer who doesn′t give a fair crack of the whip to that meaning’ (Delaney, p.99).
    • 2010, House of Lords, The British Film and Television Industries: Decline Or Opportunity? 1st Report of Session 2009-10, Volume II: Evidence, page 91,
      Lord Inglewood: Then you intimated that you felt that your members were not getting a fair crack of the whip. Is that right?
      Mr McVay: I think that previously we do not think that we were getting a fair crack of the whip. I think we have every chance now to exploit our content.

Synonyms

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