able whackets
able whackets noun: blows on the hand from a knotted or twisted handkerchief, especially given as a punishment to the loser of certain card games.
Noun
able whackets pl (plural only)
- Blows on the hand from a knotted or twisted handkerchief, especially given as a punishment to the loser of certain card games.
- The chief amusement or game in use in the midshipmen's berth, was ‘able whackets’, a pastime in which cards, blasphemy, and hard knocks were agreeably mingled.1905, John Masefield, Sea Life in Nelson's Time, section IV
- Instead of the usual sailors' games of cards and ablewhackets, there was the clicking of dice, with games of parcheesi unfolding on chequerboards of rope […].2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 15
Forms of able whackets
| alternative form | abel-wackets |
|---|---|
| alternative form | abelwhackets |
| alternative form | ablewhackets |
| alternative form | ablewackets |
Origin of able whackets
Possibly from able, as in able seaman, and whack.
Questions about able whackets
- What does able whackets mean?
- Able whackets means blows on the hand from a knotted or twisted handkerchief, especially given as a punishment to the loser of certain card games.
- What part of speech is able whackets?
- Able whackets is a noun.
Words near able whackets in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: able whackets (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-able whackets.ogg.
Cite this entry: “able whackets.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/able_whackets. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.