- [countable] a long, thin piece of rope or leather, attached to a handle, used for hitting animals or people, to make them move, or move faster, or as a punishment
- He cracked his whip and the horse leapt forward.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- riding
- bull
- horse
- …
- crack
- flick
- hold
- …
- crack
- come down
- the crack of a whip
Definitions on the go
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- [countable] an official in a political party who is responsible for making sure that the party's MPs attend and vote in important debates in a parliament
- the chief whip
- [countable] (British English) a written instruction telling the MPs of a political party how to vote on a particular issue see also three-line whipTopics Politicsc2
- the whip[singular] (British English) the fact of being an MP belonging to a particular party, with the duties and rights associated with that
- He resigned the Tory whip and sat as an independent.
- [uncountable, countable] a sweet dish made from cream, eggs, sugar and fruit mixed together
Word OriginMiddle English: probably from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch wippen ‘swing, leap, dance’, from a Germanic base meaning ‘move quickly’. The noun is partly from the verb, reinforced by Middle Low German wippe ‘quick movement’.
Idioms
See whip in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarycrack the whip
- to use your authority or power to make somebody work very hard, usually by treating them in a strict way
a fair crack of the whip
- (British English, informal) a reasonable opportunity to show that you can do something
- I felt we weren't given a fair crack of the whip.
have/hold, etc. the whip hand (over somebody/something)
- to be in a position where you have power or control over somebody/something
- She had the whip hand and it was useless to resist.
Check pronunciation:
whip