different between whack vs swat

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

• (US) IPA^(key): /sw?t/, /sw?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Etymology 1

Alteration of squat.

Verb

swat (third-person singular simple present swats, present participle swatting, simple past and past participle swatted)

1. (transitive) To beat off, as insects; to bat, strike, or hit.

   He swatted the mosquito that was buzzing around in his bedroom.

   The cat swatted at the feather.

   • 2017, Jennifer S. Holland, For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival., National Geographic (March 2017)[1]

     During my first day in the woods, Raoul, the big alpha male of Rambo II, opened wide to show me his dagger-sharp canines, then sauntered by and swatted my calf with a stick—letting me know my place in the social order. (Low.)

Translations

Noun

swat (plural swats)

1. A hard stroke, hit or blow, e.g., as part of a spanking.
2. Alternate spelling of swot: vigorous study at an educational institution.

Translations

See also

• flyswatter

Etymology 2

See SWAT.

Verb

swat (third-person singular simple present swats, present participle swatting, simple past and past participle swatted)

1. (slang) To illegitimately provoke a SWAT assault upon (someone).
   • 2017, Elizabeth Heiter, Stalked, MIRA (?ISBN):

     “You've just been swatted.” “What?” Sophia asked. “A spoofed call to police, claiming an emergency, to get a SWAT response,” Evelyn said. Realizing why the SWAT officer had noticed the controller, she guessed, […]

References

Anagrams

• 'twas, ATWS, AWTs, TAWS, TWAs, WSTA, sawt, staw, taws, was't, wast, wats

Louisiana Creole French

Etymology

From French soit (“thus”).

Conjunction

swat

1. or

Maltese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swa?t/

Noun

swat

1. plural of sawt

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *swait-, from Proto-Indo-European *swoyd-, *sweyd-. Cognate with Old Saxon swêt, Old High German sweiz, Old Norse sveiti (“sweat, blood”). The Indo-European root also gave Latin sudor, Sanskrit Sanskrit ????? (sveda).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sw??t/

Noun

sw?t m or n

1. sweat
2. used of other moisture that comes from the body, especially blood

Declension

Derived terms

• sw?tan (“to sweat”)
• sw?ti? (“sweaty”)
• sw?tþ?rel (“a pore”)

Descendants

• English: swate, swote, swot, swete, swet
  • English: sweat

Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *svat?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sfat/

Noun

swat m pers (feminine swatka)

1. A matchmaker.
2. The father of one's child-in-law.

Declension

Related terms

• (nouns) swach m pers, swacha f, swachna f, swatanie n (the act of matchmaking)
• (verb) swata? (to matchmake)

Further reading

• swat in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• swat in Polish dictionaries at PWN