different between trounce vs whack

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /t?a?ns/
• Rhymes: -a?ns

Etymology 1

The origin of the verb is unknown; it is perhaps related to Old French troncer, troncher, troncir, tronchir (“to cut; to cut a piece from; to retrench”), from Old French tronce, tronche (“stump; piece of wood”). However, the English and Old French words differ in meaning.

The noun is derived from the verb.

Verb

trounce (third-person singular simple present trounces, present participle trouncing, simple past and past participle trounced)

1. (transitive) To beat severely; to thrash.
2. (transitive) To beat or overcome thoroughly, to defeat heavily; especially (games, sports) to win against (someone) by a wide margin.
3. (transitive) To chastise or punish physically or verbally; to scold with abusive language.

   Synonyms: censure, (verbal punishment) rebuke
4. (transitive, Britain, regional) To punish by bringing a lawsuit against; to sue.

Derived terms

• trouncer
• trouncing (noun)

Translations

Noun

trounce (plural trounces)

1. An act of trouncing: a severe beating, a thrashing; a thorough defeat.

Translations

Etymology 2

The verb is derived from Middle English traunce, trauncen, trancen (“to move about (?); to prance (?); to trample the ground”) (whence modern English trance with the same senses), possibly either:

• from Middle English trauncen, transen (“to pass from life to death, die”), from Old French transir (“to cut through, pass through”), from Latin tr?ns?re, present active infinitive of tr?nse? (“to cross, traverse; to go over (to a side or faction); to pass over; to exceed, surpass; of time: to elapse, pass; (figuratively) to cease, pass away”), from tr?ns (“across; beyond”) + e? (“to go”); or
• a blend of Middle English tramplen (“to tread on, trample”) + dauncen (“to dance”) or prauncen (“to prance”).

The noun is probably derived from the verb.

Verb

trounce (third-person singular simple present trounces, present participle trouncing, simple past and past participle trounced) (Britain, dialectal)

1. (intransitive) To walk heavily or with some difficulty; to tramp, to trudge.

   Synonym: (obsolete except dialectal) trance
2. (intransitive) To pass across or over; to traverse.

   Synonym: (obsolete except dialectal) trance
3. (intransitive) To travel quickly over a long distance.

   Synonym: (obsolete except dialectal) trance

Noun

trounce (plural trounces) (Britain, dialectal)

1. A walk involving some difficulty or effort; a trek, a tramp, a trudge.
2. A journey involving quick travel; also, one that is dangerous or laborious.

   Synonym: (obsolete except dialectal) trance

References

• “TROUNCE, sb. and v.²” in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume VI (T–Z, Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar), London: Published by Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905, ?OCLC, page 248, column 1.

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “trounce”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• Counter, Cureton, Cutrone, cornute, counter, counter-, countre, recount

English

Etymology

Uncertain. Originally Scottish. Probably onomatopoeic, although possibly a variant of thwack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wæk/
• (without the wine–whine merger) IPA^(key): /?æk/
• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophone: wack (accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

whack (plural whacks)

1. The sound of a heavy strike.
2. The strike itself.
3. The stroke itself, regardless of its successful impact.
4. (US, slang) An attempt, a chance, a turn, a go, originally an attempt to beat someone or something.

   C'mon. Take a whack at it.

   40 bucks a whack.

5. (originally Britain cant, dated) A share, a portion, especially a full share or large portion.
   • 1906, Jack London, White Fang, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, Part 1, Chapter 2, p. 16,^[1]

     “It’s damned tame, whatever it is, comin’ in here at feedin’ time an’ gettin’ its whack of fish.”

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: Appleton, Chapter VII, page 108,^[2]

     “ […] O'Cannon's a taxpayer. He pays his whack towards the upkeep of the State School up in town—”

   • 1951, Katherine Mansfield, Letters to John Middleton Murry, 1913-1922,

     For one thing I had a splendid supper when I got on board—a whack of cold, lean beef and pighells, bread, butter ad lib., tea, and plenty of good bread.

   • 2014, Anthony Pritchard, Grand Prix Ferrari (page 203)

     There were problems over the installation of the engine and the handling. The team had paid top whack for the two Coopers, but the company gave them no help at all.

6. (obsolete) A whack-up: a division of an amount into separate whacks, a divvying up.
7. (US, obsolete) A deal, an agreement.
   • 1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Ch. vi, page 70:

     "I'll stay if you will."
     "Good—that's a whack."

   It's a whack!

8. (typography, computing, slang) The backslash, ??\??.

   del c:\docs\readme.txt

   Delete c colon whack docs whack readme dot text.

Derived terms

• full whack
• have a whack at
• out of whack
• take a whack at
• top whack
• wacky
• whack up, whack-up

Translations

Verb

whack (third-person singular simple present whacks, present participle whacking, simple past and past participle whacked)

1. To hit, slap or strike.
   • G. W. Cable

     Rodsmen were whacking their way through willow brakes.

2. (slang) To kill, bump off.
3. (transitive, slang) To share or parcel out (often with up).

   to whack the spoils of a robbery

   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, London: G. Newbold, Volume 2, p. 152,

     When the sewer-hunters consider they have searched long enough […] the gang […] count out the money they have picked up, and proceed to dispose of the old metal, bones, rope, &c.; this done, they then, as they term it, “whack” the whole lot; that is, they divide it equally among all hands.

4. (sports) To beat convincingly; to thrash.
   • 2012, Ryan Pyette, Majors, Panthers play mind games, The London Free Press:

     The fidgety Majors were whacked 9-1 by the Kitchener Panthers at Couch and now trail their rivals 2-0 in an increasingly uncomfortable best-of-seven Intercounty Baseball League first-round series.

5. (Britain, chiefly in the negative) To surpass; to better.
   • 2012, Steve Cullen, Total Flyfisher:

     Recently I was over in Ireland, I love the place, proper fishing, can't whack it!

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:kill

Derived terms

• whack off
• whack the illy

Translations

Adjective

whack (comparative whacker, superlative whackest)

1. Alternative form of wack (“crazy”)

   That's whack, yo!

   • 2007, Joyce E. Davis, Can't Stop The Shine, page 51:

     As they joked about the big butts on female celebrities and what rappers had the whackest lyrics, Malcolm paid little attention to Kalia besides squeezing her hand or grabbing her arm to hold himself up […]

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "whack, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1923.