different between whack vs punch

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): /p?nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Etymology 1

From Middle English punchen, partially from Old French ponchonner (“to punch”), from ponchon (“pointed tool”), from Latin punctio, from punctus, perfect passive participle of pung? (“I prick”); and partially from Middle English punchen, a syncopated variant of punischen ("to punish"; see punish). Also influenced by Middle English punchon ("a punch"; see puncheon).

Noun

punch (countable and uncountable, plural punches)

1. (countable) A hit or strike with one's fist.
2. (uncountable) Power, strength, energy.
3. (uncountable) Impact.

Synonyms

• (strike with the fist): blow, box, bunch of fives (Britain)
• (power, strength): oomph, pep

Hyponyms

• (strike with the fist): jab, hook, king hit, uppercut, pounding

Derived terms

Related terms

• puncheon

Translations

See also

• (A strike with the fist): slap

Verb

punch (third-person singular simple present punches, present participle punching, simple past and past participle punched)

1. (transitive) To strike with one's fist.

   If she punches me, I'm gonna break her nose.

2. (transitive, of cattle) To herd.
3. (transitive) To operate (a device or system) by depressing a button, key, bar, or pedal, or by similar means.
4. (transitive) To enter (information) on a device or system.
5. (transitive) To hit (a ball or similar object) with less than full force.

   He punched a hit into shallow left field.

6. (transitive) To make holes in something (rail ticket, leather belt, etc)
7. To thrust against; to poke.

   to punch one with the end of a stick or the elbow

Synonyms

• (To strike with the fist): box, slug

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Shortened form of puncheon, from Old French ponchon (“pointed tool”), from Latin punctio, from punctus, perfect passive participle of pung? (“I prick”).

Noun

punch (plural punches)

1. (countable) A device, generally slender and round, used for creating holes in thin material, for driving an object through a hole in a containing object, or to stamp or emboss a mark or design on a surface.
   1. (countable) A mechanism for punching holes in paper or other thin material.
2. (countable) A hole or opening created with a punch.
3. (piledriving) An extension piece applied to the top of a pile; a dolly.
4. A prop, as for the roof of a mine.

Translations

See also

• centrepunch, centre punch, centerpunch
• hole punch
• nail punch
• paper punch
• three-hole punch

Verb

punch (third-person singular simple present punches, present participle punching, simple past and past participle punched)

1. To employ a punch to create a hole in or stamp or emboss a mark on something.
2. To mark a ticket.

Hypernyms

• (to create a hole): perforate, pierce

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Hindi ???? (p??c, “five”), because of the drink's original five ingredients (spirits, water, lemon juice, sugar, and spice), from Sanskrit ?????? (páñcan). Doublet of five, cinque, pimp, and Pompeii.

Noun

punch (countable and uncountable, plural punches)

2. A beverage, generally containing a mixture of fruit juice and some other beverage, often alcoholic.

Descendants

Translations

Etymology 4

From Punch.

Noun

punch (plural punches)

1. (entomology) Any of various riodinid butterflies of the genus Dodona of Asia.

Dutch

Alternative forms

• pons (obsolete)
• puns (dated)

Etymology

Borrowed from English punch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?n?/
• Hyphenation: punch

Noun

punch m (uncountable)

1. punch (beverage)

French

Alternative forms

• ponch (1990 reform spelling)

Etymology

From English punch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???/

Noun

punch m (plural punchs)

1. punch (drink)

Further reading

• “punch” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Spanish

Noun

punch m (plural punches)

1. punch (drink)