whacking

English

Verb

whacking

1. present participle of whack

Adjective

whacking (not comparable)

1. (informal) Exceptionally large; whopping (often followed by an adjective such as great or big).
   • 1762, Thomas Bridges, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, London: S. Hooper, 1772, Book 7 of Homer’s Iliad, p. 289,^[1]

     […] all our grannies tell us how

     He kill’d a whacking great dun cow;

   • 1819, Olivia Clarke, The Irishwoman. A Comedy in Five Acts, London: H. Colburn, Act V, Scene 2, p. 80,^[2]

     […] these two whacking Irish boys, that I was telling you of just now, are posted at the hall door to seize the villain, and take him to pay his respects to the next sitting magistrate […]

   • 1895, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “The Roll-Call of the Reef” in Wandering Heath: Stories, Studies, and Sketches, London: Cassell & Co., 1896, p. 13,^[3]

     […] beside them clung a trumpeter, a whacking big man, an’ between the heavy seas he would lift his trumpet with one hand, and blow a call; and every time he blew the men gave a cheer.

   • 1903, F. Marion Crawford, Man Overboard!, New York: Macmillan, pp. 81-82,^[4]

     He was what they call a Hard-shell Baptist in those parts, with a long, shaven upper lip and a whacking appetite, and a sort of superior look, as if he didn't expect to see many of us hereafter […]

   • 1926, Neville Shute, Marazan, London: Cassell & Co., Chapter Five,^[5]

     There was no secret in Genoa about the destination of the little tramp with the peculiar equipment of lifeboats and davits—two whacking great motor boats each as big as a Navy pinnace, each with a couple of hundred horse-power in her.

   • 1932, Delta Sigma Delta-Desmos (volume 38, page 151)

     If any of you want a whacking lot of experience, lots of thrills to the minute and can pay your own freight, sign up for that trip to the land of the Northern Lights.

   • 2004, Peter Bradshaw, “House of Sand and Fog,” The Guardian, 27 February, 2004,^[6]

     He seizes on an opportunity to buy a house at a repo-auction, planning to sell it on for a whacking profit.

Noun

whacking (plural whackings)

1. A beating.