whiff-whaffs

whiff-whaffs is the plural of whiff-whaff.

Meaning of whiff-whaff

whiff-whaff (uncountable)

(archaic) Table tennis.
- Boris Johnson's claim ping-pong was originally a Victorian English invention called whiff-whaff has been attacked by the descendants of the world's oldest sporting and games manufacturer.[2008 September 2, Chris Irvine, “Boris Johnson in whiff-whaff ping-pong row”, in The Telegraph, retrieved 24 Nov 2020

whiff-whaff (plural whiff-whaffs)

The breathy sound of something rushing quickly; whoosh.
- Then, no one saw precisely how it happened, whiff-whaff, Lemoine's weapon flew from his hand and struck the wall with a whirr and a jangle.1922, Stanley John Weyman, The Wild Geese, page 87

whiff-whaff (uncountable)

(obsolete, Lancashire) Nonsense, words or deeds of little import.
- Whau, aw'll begin o' thisn' then. It's whiff-whaff Stuart, -- snifterin' Finch yo'known Virtue has laft o' -- truth is fro' o'flown!1854, Tim Bobbin, Samuel Bamford, The dialect of South Lancashire: or, Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary, page 4
Synonyms:

absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls, baloney, banana oil
(Lancashire) Unnecessary items or additions.
- Never, never, wear any kind of a whiff-whaff or a thing-ama-bob on your hat.1938, Loraine Osborn, Your Voice Personality, page 137
Synonyms:

Sorted by number of Google hits, widget, hickey, gizmo, thingy, gimmick, thingie, jigger, gismo, gubbins

What is whiff-whaffs the plural of?: Whiff-whaffs is the plural of whiff-whaff.

Adapted from Wiktionary: whiff-whaffs (page history and authors); whiff-whaff (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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “whiff-whaffs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whiff-whaffs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.