Word.ws English Dictionary

whippersnapper

UK/ˈwɪpəˌsnæpə//ˈʍɪpəɹˌsnæpəɹ/

whippersnapper noun: a young and cheeky or presumptuous person; often with a connotation of ignorance via inexperience.

Noun

whippersnapper (plural whippersnappers)

  1. (colloquial) A young and cheeky or presumptuous person; often with a connotation of ignorance via inexperience.
    • These whippersnappers have never had to walk far or carry water.
    • "Throw me a nine iron Fatman, I want to make sure of getting inside you young whippersnappers."1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 34

whippersnapper meaning in Malayalam

whippersnapper in Malayalam

stripling, upstart, pipsqueak
അല്പൻ, നിസ്സാരനായ ധിക്കാരി, വകതിരിവില്ലാത്തൻ, ദുർവ്വിനീതൻ, കാര്യപുടൻ, ധിക്കാരി

Forms of whippersnapper

pluralwhippersnappers
alternative formwhipper-snapper
alternative formwhipper snapper

Origin of whippersnapper

Extension of *whip-snapper (“a cracker of whips”), or perhaps from snipper-snapper. Compare also whipperginnie (“term of abuse for a woman”), late 16th c.

Questions about whippersnapper

What does whippersnapper mean?
Whippersnapper means a young and cheeky or presumptuous person; often with a connotation of ignorance via inexperience.
What is whippersnapper in Malayalam?
Whippersnapper in Malayalam is അല്പൻ, നിസ്സാരനായ ധിക്കാരി, വകതിരിവില്ലാത്തൻ. See Whippersnapper meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is whippersnapper?
Whippersnapper is a noun.
How do you pronounce whippersnapper?
Whippersnapper is pronounced /ˈwɪpəˌsnæpə/ (UK).
What is the plural of whippersnapper?
The plural of whippersnapper is whippersnappers.

Words near whippersnapper in the dictionary

  1. whipper-snapper
  2. whipper-snappers
  3. whipperjawed
  4. whippers
  5. whippers-in
  6. whippersnapper
  7. whippersnappers
  8. whippes
  9. whippest
  10. whippet
  11. whippeth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whippersnapper (page history and authors); whippersnapper (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-whippersnapper.ogg, en-au-whippersnapper.ogg.

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