☞ Its long and tapering tail has the scales so arranged and colored as to give it a braided appearance, whence the name. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To strike with a lash, a cord, a rod, or anything slender and lithe; to lash; to beat; as, to whip a horse, or a carpet. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To drive with lashes or strokes of a whip; to cause to rotate by lashing with a cord; as, to whip a top. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To punish with a whip, scourge, or rod; to flog; to beat; as, to whip a vagrant; to whip one with thirty nine lashes; to whip a perverse boy. [ 1913 Webster ]

Who, for false quantities, was whipped at school. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To apply that which hurts keenly to; to lash, as with sarcasm, abuse, or the like; to apply cutting language to. [ 1913 Webster ]

They would whip me with their fine wits. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To thrash; to beat out, as grain, by striking; as, to whip wheat. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To beat (eggs, cream, or the like) into a froth, as with a whisk, fork, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. To conquer; to defeat, as in a contest or game; to beat; to surpass. [ Slang, U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

8. To overlay (a cord, rope, or the like) with other cords going round and round it; to overcast, as the edge of a seam; to wrap; -- often with about, around, or over. [ 1913 Webster ]

Its string is firmly whipped about with small gut. Moxon. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. To sew lightly; specifically, to form (a fabric) into gathers by loosely overcasting the rolled edge and drawing up the thread; as, to whip a ruffle. [ 1913 Webster ]

In half-whipped muslin needles useless lie. Gay. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. To take or move by a sudden motion; to jerk; to snatch; -- with into, out, up, off, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

She, in a hurry, whips up her darling under her arm. L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

He whips out his pocketbook every moment, and writes descriptions of everything he sees. Walpole. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. (Naut.) (a) To hoist or purchase by means of a whip. (b) To secure the end of (a rope, or the like) from untwisting by overcasting it with small stuff. [ 1913 Webster ]

12. To fish (a body of water) with a rod and artificial fly, the motion being that employed in using a whip. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whipping their rough surface for a trout. Emerson. [ 1913 Webster ]

To whip in, to drive in, or keep from scattering, as hounds in a hurt; hence, to collect, or to keep together, as member of a party, or the like. --
To whip the cat. (a) To practice extreme parsimony. [ Prov. Eng. ] Forby. (b) To go from house to house working by the day, as itinerant tailors and carpenters do. [ Prov. & U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

With speed from thence he whipped. Sackville. [ 1913 Webster ]

Two friends, traveling, met a bear upon the way; the one whips up a tree, and the other throws himself flat upon the ground. L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. An instrument or driving horses or other animals, or for correction, consisting usually of a lash attached to a handle, or of a handle and lash so combined as to form a flexible rod. “[ A ] whip's lash.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

In his right hand he holds a whip, with which he is supposed to drive the horses of the sun. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A coachman; a driver of a carriage; as, a good whip. Beaconsfield. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mach.) (a) One of the arms or frames of a windmill, on which the sails are spread. (b) The length of the arm reckoned from the shaft. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Naut.) (a) A small tackle with a single rope, used to hoist light bodies. (b) The long pennant. See Pennant (a) [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A huntsman who whips in the hounds; whipper-in. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Eng. Politics) (a) A person (as a member of Parliament) appointed to enforce party discipline, and secure the attendance of the members of a Parliament party at any important session, especially when their votes are needed. (b) A call made upon members of a Parliament party to be in their places at a given time, as when a vote is to be taken. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A whipping motion; a thrashing about; as, the whip of a tense rope or wire which has suddenly parted; also, the quality of being whiplike or flexible; flexibility; suppleness, as of the shaft of a golf club. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

8. (Mech.) Any of various pieces that operate with a quick vibratory motion, as a spring in certain electrical devices for making a circuit, or a rocking certain piano actions. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

Whip and spur, with the utmost haste. --
Whip crane, or
Whip purchase, a simple form of crane having a small drum from which the load is suspended, turned by pulling on a rope wound around larger drum on the same axle. --
Whip gin. See Gin block, under 5th Gin. --
Whip grafting. See under Grafting. --
Whip hand, the hand with which the whip is used; hence, advantage; mastery; as, to have or get the whip hand of a person. Dryden. --
Whip ray (Zool.), the European eagle ray. See under Ray. --
Whip roll (Weaving), a roll or bar, behind the reeds in a loom, on which the warp threads rest. --
Whip scorpion (Zool.), any one of numerous species of arachnids belonging to Thelyphonus and allied genera. They somewhat resemble true scorpions, but have a long, slender bristle, or lashlike organ, at the end of the body, instead of a sting. --
Whip snake (Zool.), any one of various species of slender snakes. Specifically: (a) A bright green South American tree snake (Philodryas viridissimus) having a long and slender body. It is not venomous. Called also emerald whip snake. (b) The coachwhip snake. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. a sudden change of direction, resembling the motion of the tip of a whip when it is cracked. [ PJC ]

3. a stinging psychological effect reminiscent of being stung by a whip. [ PJC ]

4. a whiplash injury. [ PJC ]

1. One who whips; especially, an officer who inflicts the penalty of legal whipping. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who raises coal or merchandise with a tackle from a chip's hold. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Spinning) A kind of simple willow. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering, and whips them in, if necessary, to the of chase. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence, one who enforces the discipline of a party, and urges the attendance and support of the members on all necessary occasions. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whipping post, a post to which offenders are tied, to be legally whipped. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The pivoted or swinging bar to which the traces, or tugs, of a harness are fastened, and by which a carriage, a plow, or other implement or vehicle, is drawn; a whiffletree; a swingletree; a singletree. See Singletree. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ People ] cut their own whippletree in the woodlot. Emerson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) The cornel tree. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A kind of narrow ripsaw, tapering from butt to point, with hook teeth and averaging from 5 to 71/2 feet in length, used by one or two men. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. To defeat in, or cause to lose, two different bets at the same turn or in one play, as a player at faro who has made two bets at the same time, one that a card will lose and another that a different card will win; hence, to defeat in spite of every effort. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

3. to cause to suffer a setback or losses by subjecting to two forces at the same time or in rapid succession; as, consumers were whipsawed by both inflation and higher sales taxes. [ PJC ]

4. (Finance) to cause to suffer a series of losses in trading when buying and selling at the wrong times in a rapidly fluctuating market; -- especially used when an attempt is made, by selling short, to recover losses from a long purchase in a declining market, and the short sale also results in a loss when the market subsequently rises. Used mostly in the passive; as, to be whipsawed by exaggerated responses to a changing outlook. [ PJC ]

Every puny whipster gets my sword. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A tailor; -- so called in contempt. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Anything hastily put or stitched together; hence, a hasty composition. [ R. ] Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Agric.) The act or process of whipstitching. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A small bit; esp., a small interval of time; an instant; a minute. [ Dial. or Colloq. ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. To sew by passing the thread over and over; to overcast; whip. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]