different between whack vs crash

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.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?æ?/

• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

From Middle English crasshen, crasschen, craschen (“to break into pieces”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a variant of earlier *crasken, from crasen (“to break”) +? -k (formative suffix); or from earlier *craskien, *craksien, a variant of craken (“to crack, break open”) (for form development compare break, brask, brash).

Noun

crash (plural crashes)

1. A sudden, intense, loud sound, as made for example by cymbals.

2. An automobile, airplane, or other vehicle accident.

3. (computing) A malfunction of computer software or hardware which causes it to shut down or become partially or totally inoperable.

   Synonym: abend

4. (finance) A sudden large decline of business or the prices of stocks (especially one that causes additional failures).

5. (informal) A comedown from a drug.
6. (collective) A group of rhinoceroses.
   • p. 1991, Patrick F. McManus, “Nincompoopery and Other Group Terms”, in The Grasshopper Trap, Henry Holt and Company, ?ISBN, page 103

     One of my favorites among the terms of groups of creatures is a crash of rhinoceros. I can imagine an African guide saying to his client, “Shoot, dammit, shoot! Here comes the whole bloody crash of rhinoceros!”

     […] Personally, I think I’d just as soon come across a crash of rhinoceros as a knot of toad.

   • 1998, E. Melanie Watt, Black Rhinos, page 19

     The largest group of black rhinos reported was made up of 13 individuals. A group of rhinos is called a crash.

   • 1999, Edward Osborne Wilson, The Diversity of Life, page 126

     Out in the water a crash of rhinoceros-like animals browse belly deep through a bed of aquatic plants.

   • 2003, Claude Herve-Bazin, Judith Farr Kenya and Tanzania, page 23

     The crash of rhinoceros at Tsavo now numbers almost 200.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

crash (not comparable)

1. Quick, fast, intensive, impromptu.

   crash course

   crash diet

Translations

Verb

crash (third-person singular simple present crashes, present participle crashing, simple past and past participle crashed)

1. (transitive) To collide with something destructively, fall or come down violently.
2. (transitive) To severely damage or destroy something by causing it to collide with something else.

3. (transitive, slang) Short for gatecrash.

4. (transitive, management) To accelerate a project or a task or its schedule by devoting more resources to it.
5. (intransitive, slang) To make or experience informal temporary living arrangements, especially overnight.

6. (slang) To give, as a favor.
7. (slang) To lie down for a long rest, sleep or nap, as from tiredness or exhaustion.
8. (computing, hardware, software, intransitive) To terminate extraordinarily.

   Synonym: bomb

9. (computing, hardware, software, transitive) To cause to terminate extraordinarily.

10. (intransitive) To experience a period of depression and/or lethargy after a period of euphoria, as after the euphoric effect of a psychotropic drug has dissipated.
11. (transitive) To hit or strike with force
12. (medicine, of a patient's condition) To take a sudden and severe turn for the worse; to rapidly deteriorate.
13. To make a sudden loud noise.

Translations

Etymology 2

Of uncertain origin; perhaps compare Russian ?????????? (krašenína, “coarse linen”).

Noun

crash (uncountable)

1. (fibre) A type of rough linen.
   • 1899, Kate Chopin, The Awakening:

     Unlocking the door of her bath-room she went inside, and soon emerged, bringing a rug, which she spread upon the floor of the gallery, and two huge hair pillows covered with crash, which she placed against the front of the building.

Translations

Anagrams

• Rasch, chars

Dutch

Pronunciation

• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /kr??/
• Hyphenation: crash
• Homophone: crèche

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English crash.

Noun

crash m (plural crashes, diminutive crashje n)

1. crash, collision, esp. when involving aircraft
2. economic crash, especially in relation to stock exchanges

   Synonym: krach

3. computer crash

Derived terms

• beurscrash
• computercrash

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

crash

1. first-person singular present indicative of crashen
2. imperative of crashen

French

Etymology

From English crash

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?a?/

Noun

crash m (plural crashs)

1. (of an aircraft) crash landing
2. (economics) crash
3. (computing) crash

Derived terms

• crasher

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?a?/, [?k?a?]

Noun

crash m (plural crashes)

1. (economics) crash
2. (computing) crash