whip

/ˈwɪp/

whip noun: a lash; a pliant, flexible instrument, such as a rod (commonly of cane or rattan) or a plaited or braided rope or thong (commonly of leather) used to create a sharp "crack" sound for directing or herding animals.

Noun (1)

whip (plural whips)

A lash; a pliant, flexible instrument, such as a rod (commonly of cane or rattan) or a plaited or braided rope or thong (commonly of leather) used to create a sharp "crack" sound for directing or herding animals.
- I had to use the whip to get the sheep's attention.
1. The same instrument used to strike a person or animal for corporal punishment or torture.
  - Once he ran out of appeals, he knew he would soon feel the sting of the whip.
A blow administered with a whip.
- I had hardly said the word, when Kit jumped into the saddle, and gave his horse a whip and a spur — and off it cantered, as if it were in as great a hurry to be married as Kit himself.1832, The Atheneum, volume 31, page 493
A whipper-in.
- At half-past ten, Tom Moody, Sir Huddlestone Fuddlestone's huntsman, was seen trotting up the avenue, followed by the noble pack of hounds in a compact body—the rear being brought up by the two whips clad in stained scarlet frocks—light hard-featured lads on well-bred lean horses, possessing...1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
- From the far side of the wood came the long shrill screech […] which signifies that one of the whips has viewed the fox quitting the covert.1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 27
A member of a political party who is in charge of enforcing the party's policies in votes.
- I was going to vote against the bill, but the party whip came to see me and made it clear I needed to vote for it.
- The Conservative deputy chief whip has resigned after admitting he had “embarrassed myself and other people” following reports that he drunkenly groped two men at a private club.
  Chris Pincher wrote to Boris Johnson saying he was standing down after drinking too much. However, he did not address...2022 June 30, “Tory deputy chief whip resigns after ‘drunkenly groping two men’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2022
Synonyms:

party whip, whipper-in
(UK, with-definite-article) A document distributed weekly to MPs by party whips informing them of upcoming votes in parliament.
(UK, broadly) The regular status of an MP within a parliamentary party, which can be revoked by the party as a disciplinary measure.
- to withdraw the whip
- As a result, he was stripped of the whip on Tuesday, preventing him from voting in the fourth ballot to narrow down candidates to be the next party leader.2022 July 20, Heather Stewart, “Tobias Ellwood temporarily given back Tory whip to vote in leadership contest”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2022
Whipped cream.
- Did you want to add some whip to your coffee, ma'am?
A purchase in which one block is used to gain a 2:1 mechanical advantage.
(African-American Vernacular) A mode of personal motorized transportation; an automobile, all makes and models including motorcycles, excluding public transportation.
- Come on, let's take my whip so we can get there in time.
- Had four bills and I bought me a car / Little red whip that I bought for my marge2015, Stormzy, “Shut Up” (track 15), in Gang Signs & Prayer, performed by Stormzy
(roller derby) A move in which one player transfers momentum to another.
A whipping motion; a thrashing about.
- I was startled by the whip of the rope when it finally snapped.
The quality of being whiplike or flexible; suppleness, as of the shaft of a golf club.

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A spring in certain electrical devices for making a circuit
A wippen, a rocking component in certain piano actions.
(historical) A coach driver; a coachman.
- Lord Carington […] led the way with his chestnuts, having a distinguished brother whip, Lord Londesborough, by his side.1871, Baily's Magazine of Sports & Pastimes, volume 20, page 308

Verb

whip (third-person singular simple present whips, present participle whipping, simple past and past participle whipped)

(transitive) To hit with a whip.
- The rider whipped the horse.
(broadly, transitive) To hit with any flexible object.
- I whipped her with a newspaper.
- Then Jill came in,
  And she did grin,
  To see Jack's paper plaster;
  Her mother whipt her,
  Across her knee,
  For laughing at Jack's disaster.1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew, page 4
(slang, transitive) To defeat, as in a contest or game.
- She whips me in the first game of pool, I do not even get a shot. Eight-balled from the break.2008, Edward Keating, The Joy of Ex: A Novel
(transitive) To mix in a rapid aerating fashion, especially food.
- to whip eggs or cream
(transitive) To urge into action or obedience.
- He whipped the department into shape.
(transitive) To enforce a member voting in accordance with party policy.
(transitive) To bind the end of a rope with twine or other small stuff to prevent its unlaying: fraying or unravelling.
- Its string […] is firmly whipt about with small Gut1677-1683, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick exercises
(transitive) To hoist or purchase by means of a whip.
To sew lightly; specifically, to form (a fabric) into gathers by loosely overcasting the rolled edge and drawing up the thread.
- to whip a ruffle
- In half-whipped muslin needles useless lie.[1716], [John] Gay, “(please specify the page)”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], →OCLC
(transitive) To throw or kick an object at a high velocity.
- He whipped the ball at me.
- Composed play then saw Sam Ricketts nutmeg Ashley Cole before Taylor whipped a fine curling effort over Petr Cech's bar.2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC
Synonyms:

fling, hurl, bung, cast, chuck, chunk, cook, dash, dump, feck
(ambitransitive) To fish a body of water especially by making repeated casts.
- whipping its rough surface for a trout1858, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Adirondac
(intransitive) To snap back and forth like a whip.
- The pennants whipped in the wind.

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(intransitive) To move very fast.
- The wind whipped through the valley.
- Two Friends, Travelling, met a Bear upon the way; the one Whips up a Tree, and the Other Throws himself Flat upon the Ground.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
Synonyms:

flail
(transitive) To move (something) very fast; often with up, out, etc.
- She,[…] in a hurry, whips up her Darling under her Arm.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
- He whips out his pocketbook every moment, and writes descriptions of everything he sees.1742, Horace Walpole, letter to Sir Horace Mann
(transitive, roller derby) To transfer momentum from one skater to another.
(figuratively) To lash with sarcasm, abuse, etc.
- They would whip me with their fine wits.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
To thrash; to beat out, as grain, by striking.
- to whip wheat

Noun (2) capitalized: WHIP

WHIP

(abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of walks plus hits per inning pitched; a statistic of the number of baserunners a pitcher has allowed per inning pitched.

whip meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

whip in Hindi

rod or rope: कोड़ा koṛā, चाबुक cābuk, हंटर haṇṭar, ताज़ियाना tāziyānā, साँटा sā̃ṭā, साँटी sā̃ṭī
party policy enforcer: सचेतक sacetak

whip in Tamil

rod or rope: சாட்டை cāṭṭai, சவுக்கு cavukku
party policy enforcer: கொறடா koṟaṭā
blow administered with a whip: சவுக்கடி cavukkaṭi

whip in Marathi

rod or rope: कोरडा korḍā

whip in Urdu

rod or rope: چابک cābuk, ہنٹر hanṭar

More languagesFewer languages

whip in Bengali: বেত bet
whip in Telugu: కొరడా koraḍā, చబుకు cabuku, విప్ vip
whip in Malayalam: ചാട്ട cāṭṭa, വിപ്പ് vippŭ
whip in Kannada: ಚಾವಟಿ, ವಿಪ್
whip in Gujarati: ચાબુક cābuk
whip in Odia: ଚାବୁକ
whip in Nepali: कोर्रा korrā
whip in Pashto: تازيانه tāzyāna, شلاخه šalāxa, کمچينه kamčīna
whip in Tagalog: latiko, latigo
whip in Arabic: سَوْط sawṭ, كِرْبَاج kirbāj, كُرْبَاج kurbāj, جَلَدَ بِسَوْط jalada bisawṭ
whip in Malay: cambok, cemeti, whip
whip in Indonesian: cambuk, mencambuk, mengalahkan, mengaduk
whip in Persian: شلاق šallâq, تازیانه tâziyâne, چابک čâbok, چماق čomâq
whip in Thai: แส้ sɛ̂ɛ, วิป wíp, ผู้คุมเสียงในสภา pûu-kum-sǐiang-nai-sà-paa, โบย booi
whip in Vietnamese: roi
whip in Myanmar: ကျာပွတ် kya-pwat

Examples of whip in a sentence

I wanna get a whip and crash it into white-owned businesses2019, “Jesus Is the One (I Got Depression)” (Comedy Hip-Hop), performed by Zack Fox, United States:
He looked up when I came in, gave a kind of cry, and whipped upstairs into the cabinet.1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Last Night”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co....

All 40 example sentences with whip

Synonyms of whip

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All synonyms of whip

Forms of whip

Noun
plural	whips
Verb
third-person singular present	whips
present participle	whipping
past participle	whipped
past	whipped

Past tense of whip: whipped

Plural of whip: whips

Origin of whip

From Middle English whippen, wippen (“to flap violently”), from Middle Dutch wippen (“to swing, leap, dance, oscillate”) and Middle Low German wippen (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Germanic *wippōną (“to move back and forth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyp- (“to shake; to swing”). (See Swedish vippa and Danish vippe (“to shake”)). The unetymological wh- is probably expressive of the sound of a whip; compare the same development in whisk and onomatopoeias such as whack and whoosh. The political senses are from whipper-in (“huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering”), from 18th-century hunting terminology.

Words formed from whip

Phrases with whip

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Words that rhyme with whip

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Questions about whip

What does whip mean?: Whip means a lash; a pliant, flexible instrument, such as a rod (commonly of cane or rattan) or a plaited or braided rope or thong (commonly of leather) used to create a sharp "crack" sound for directing or herding animals.
What is whip in Hindi?: Whip in Hindi is कोड़ा (koṛā), चाबुक (cābuk), हंटर (haṇṭar). See Whip meaning in Hindi.
How do you use whip in a sentence?: I wanna get a whip and crash it into white-owned businesses
What part of speech is whip?: Whip can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce whip?: Whip is pronounced /ˈwɪp/.
What is the plural of whip?: The plural of whip is whips.

Words near whip in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: whip (page history and authors); WHIP (page history and authors); whip (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whip (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whip.wav, en-us-whip.ogg.

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