whack up

Verb

whack up (third-person singular simple present whacks up, present participle whacking up, simple past and past participle whacked up)

1. (idiomatic, slang) To divide into shares; divvy.
   • We'll whack up fair with you, Hitchcock. In everything you'll get your quarter-share, neither more nor less; and you can take it or leave it.1901, Jack London, The God of his Fathers: Tales of the Klondyke
   • Whack up whatever we have in the larder, and eat that.1906, P. G. Wodehouse, Love Among the Chickens
2. (idiomatic, slang) To pay, especially reluctantly or with difficulty; to cough up; to shell out.
   • A woman does not doubt her husband's work, of course, when manufactures, like home made candy, leaving hubby to pay for the raw materials; or else to take a lodger into the flat for which the same hubby whacks up $37.50 every month.1903, Craig McClure, “Unprevaricated Proverbs”, in Home Journal, volume 59, page 13
   • He is approached by some person who tells him that he knows of a homestead that is open, but, of course, it will take a little to secure it: if the intending settler is ready to whack up $1 or $2 an acre, the place can be secured.1906, Canada. Parliament, Official Reports of the Debates of the House of Commons, page 4881
3. (slang) To cut up or chop up.
   • I have whacked up some wood, and I'm sure of this fact, that it pays to be good.1911, Walt Mason, “The Commercial Basis”, in Farm Journal, volumes 35-36, page 93
   • Let's ply the saw and speed her, and whack up elm and cedar, and thus, O gentle reader, our well-known bulwarks guard.1920, Hearst's International - Volume 38, page 48
4. (slang) To strike someone or something repeatedly or very forcefully.
   • The long check-rein whacked up the leader, and sent the whole team on a brisk trot down the winding grade to the music of a black-snake whip, its sharp notes resounding among the hills and vales of the "blue-grass land."1883, John Alexander Joyce, A Checkered Life, page 25
   • Five months or so have now passed since I was with John in New York and I am now sitting in 'the bunker' at Beggars–the basement floor of the building where Tim can quite happily whack up his bass beats and not disturb the neighbours waiting his arrival.1987, “The Rebirth of John Rocca”, in Blues & Soul, numbers 474-485, page 18
5. (idiomatic, slang) To control or dominate someone or something in a thorough or severe manner.
   • District 50 is trying to whack up the AFL- CIO, " said Carlough, "why doesn't the AFL - CIO go out and whack up District 50?"1961, Edward J. Carlough, Aluminum Light, page 9
6. (idiomatic, slang) To create or produce in a sudden or haphazard manner.
   • And at intervals from behind the veil of the temple is heard the voice of the foreman demanding three inches of wit and six lines of religious meditation, or bidding him turn off the wisdom and whack up some pathos.1911, Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
   • Or perhaps you'd like a row of outlets over a workbench. Another guard whacks up metal raceway in minutes.1956 December, Jerry Parker, “Blow That Stud Down!”, in Popular Science, volume 169, number 6, page 156
7. (idiomatic, slang) To gather together; to accumulate or come up with.
   • The men was all to the Banks, and Counahan he whacked up an iverlastin' hard crowd fer crew.1897, Rudyard Kipling, "Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand Banks, page 173
   • Worships the ground you tread on but can't whack up the ginger to tell you so.1922, The Cosmopolitan - Volume 72, page 74
8. (idiomatic, slang) To inject an illegal drug.
   • If I tried to whack up I wouldn't get a vein it would clog up with blood, the works, the syringe, would clog up with blood and that's it,2003, Peter Aggleton, Peter Davies, Graham Hart, Aids: Safety, Sexuality and Risk, page 134
   • When I barged in, he had a needle hanging out of his arm... He asked me if I wanted to try it and I did ... I whacked up right then.'2018, Tim Watson-Munro, A Shrink in the Clink
9. (slang) To hit, send, or move forward or upward quickly or forcefully.
   • Swinging through, the batter whacks it up the left field line .2001, Lisa M. Tillmann-Healy, Between Gay and Straight, page 47
   • The sedan careened, flopped over to the right. Its headlights whacked up and then gracefully swept down into emptiness.2012, L. Ron Hubbard, Mouthpiece
10. (idiomatic) To increase or raise by a sizeable amount.
    • Every time they need more money, they whack up personal income tax and they spend the money. They need more money ; they whack up excise on fuel.2001, Australia. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: House of Representatives, page 26050
    • Frying onions whacks up the count – 100g of fried onions contains 146 calories.2008, Kate Santon, Perfect Calorie Counting
11. (idiomatic, slang) To mess up.
    • on all the long bars it was even; the short bars we would leave in—that is, whack up the length; so that the short bars wouldn't come out as far as the long bars; but I put some of the short bars on the long bars and some of the long bars on the short bars;1957, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, Verbal Behavior, page 4
    • Did he get whacked up on ninety-nines and trash your auntie's shop?2011, Allie Spencer, Summer Loving, page 40