Word.ws English Dictionary

crack-the-whip

crack-the-whip noun: an outdoor children's game in which participants try to maintain hold of hands as random movements by the leader at the head of the line increase the force at the tail, as with the end of a whip.

crack-the-whip: an outdoor children's game in which participants try to maintain hold of hands as random movements...
Image: Winslow Homer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

crack-the-whip

  1. An outdoor children's game in which participants try to maintain hold of hands as random movements by the leader at the head of the line increase the force at the tail, as with the end of a whip.
    Synonyms:
    pop-the-whip
  2. Any maneuver in a variety of disciplines that mimics the motion of the tail of a whip.

Synonyms of crack-the-whip

Forms of crack-the-whip

alternative formcrack the whip
alternative formCrack the Whip

Questions about crack-the-whip

What does crack-the-whip mean?
Crack-the-whip means an outdoor children's game in which participants try to maintain hold of hands as random movements by the leader at the head of the line increase the force at the tail, as with the end of a whip.
What part of speech is crack-the-whip?
Crack-the-whip is a noun.

Words near crack-the-whip in the dictionary

  1. crack-pottiest
  2. crack-potty
  3. crack-rope
  4. crack-ropes
  5. crack-shot
  6. crack-the-whip
  7. crack-up
  8. crack-ups
  9. cracka
  10. crackaa
  11. crackability

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crack-the-whip (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.

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