whack up

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

1. (slang, idiomatic) To divide into shares; divvy.
   • 1901, Jack London, The God of his Fathers: Tales of the Klondyke:

     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.

   • 1906, P. G. Wodehouse, Love Among the Chickens:

     Whack up whatever we have in the larder, and eat that.

   • 2010, Kenny Gallo, ‎Matthew Randazzo V, ‎Matthew Randazzo, Breakshot: A Life in the 21st Century American Mafia, page 19:

     American dealer breaks up, whacks up, packages, and sells kilo piecemeal for $35,000

   • 2012, ‎Mark Brandon Read, Chopper Unchopped:

     The very best of friends will gather to whack up the booty, and each man will sit at the table with his hand on his gun butt as the pie gets cut up. Very often a six-man gang can meet to whack up the proceeds and turn into a three or four-man gang in a few bloody moments of gunfire.

   • 2018, D.J. Cook, Hands Up, page 177:

     Just as he was leaving the stable, however, to go home, one of the detectives came and wanted the baggage belonging to the three men who had been taken from the coach that day, saying that there was more than one hundred thousand in money in the outfit, besides considerable jewelry, and that he would "whack up” with the driver if he would get it.

2. (slang, idiomatic) To pay, especially reluctantly or with difficulty; to cough up; to shell out.
   • 1903, Craig McClure, “Unprevaricated Proverbs”, in Home Journal, volume 59, page 13:

     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.

   • 1906, Canada. Parliament, Official Reports of the Debates of the House of Commons, page 4881:

     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.

   • 1958, Over Here - Volume 4, page 45:

     I said in th' letter that'd I'd whack up half.

3. (slang) To cut up or chop up.
   • 1911, Walt Mason, “The Commercial Basis”, in Farm Journal, volumes 35-36, page 93:

     I have whacked up some wood, and I'm sure of this fact, that it pays to be good.

   • 1920, Hearst's International - Volume 38, page 48:

     Let's ply the saw and speed her, and whack up elm and cedar, and thus, O gentle reader, our well-known bulwarks guard.

   • 2009, Cindy Traisi, Because They Matter, Too, page 14:

     "He looks pretty bad," Stan said. "He was cut up by the rotors of an outboard motor and is whacked up all over."

4. (slang) To strike someone or something repeatedly or very forcefully.
   • 1883, John Alexander Joyce, A Checkered Life, page 25:

     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."

   • 1987, “The Rebirth of John Rocca”, in Blues & Soul, numbers 474-485, page 18:

     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.

   • 2009, Tony Lambrianou, Inside the Firm - The Untold Story of The Krays' Reign of Terror:

     They got whacked up in the air a bit, and after that Humphries decided he needed a Rule 43 protection in the block —isolation from other prisoners.

   • 2021, Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008, page 6:

     One night Stephan was off somewhere, I took myself a hammer. I went out to that car and I did a number on its underside. Whacked it up.

   • 2023, Iro Blahnik, The Ruthless Alpha's Innocent Breeder（Part II:

     "Let go of me, Claudius! I'm leaving!" I said between gritted teeth and whacked up his chest.

5. (slang, idiomatic) To control or dominate someone or something in a thorough or severe manner.
   • 1961, Edward J. Carlough, Aluminum Light, page 9:

     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?"

6. (slang, idiomatic) To create or produce in a sudden or haphazard manner.
   • 1911, Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary:

     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.

   • 1956 December, Jerry Parker, “Blow That Stud Down!”, in Popular Science, volume 169, number 6, page 156:

     Or perhaps you'd like a row of outlets over a workbench. Another guard whacks up metal raceway in minutes.

   • 1994, Ralph Moody, Horse of a Different Color, page 242:

     After I'd washed up I put on a pot of coffee and whacked up a big batch of biscuits.

   • 2013, Shonagh Koea, The Best of Shonagh Koea's Short Stories:

     I'll whack up a bit of toast and I've got some cinnamon,' she said, 'somewhere. I'll whack up cinnamon toast.'

   • 2019, Felicity Castagna, No More Boats:

     They came from countries where you just whacked up a scaffold with bamboo and string and when everything collapsed you covered up the whole mess by throwing the buildings and bodies into giant holes in the ground and starting again.

7. (slang, idiomatic) To gather together; to accumulate or come up with.
   • 1897, Rudyard Kipling, "Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand Banks, page 173:

     The men was all to the Banks, and Counahan he whacked up an iverlastin' hard crowd fer crew.

   • 1922, The Cosmopolitan - Volume 72, page 74:

     Worships the ground you tread on but can't whack up the ginger to tell you so.

   • 1987, Dixon Scott, A Fresh Wind in the Willows, page 13:

     When the chaps who are in are all out, the other team goes in for their whack and if they can whack up more runs before they're out than the other chaps did while they were in, they're the winners.

   • 2006, Allen M. Hornblum, Confessions of a Second Story Man, page 138:

     Sometimes we'd make decent money . We'd whack up five, six , seven thousand dollars, so you might grab anywhere from a "G" to a couple thousand a night.

8. (slang, idiomatic) To inject an illegal drug.
   • 2003, Peter Aggleton, ‎Peter Davies, ‎Graham Hart, Aids: Safety, Sexuality and Risk, page 134:

     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,

   • 2018, Tim Watson-Munro, A Shrink in the Clink:

     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.'

   • 2020, Mark Halsey, ‎Melissa de Vel-Palumbo, Generations Through Prison:

     I seen my mum whacking up in front of me and I remember I asked her one day, I said, 'Fucking let me have a shot of that, ' ... And ... she turned around and she goes, ' If you're going to do it in front of anybody, you do it in front of me.'

9. (slang) To hit, send, or move forward or upward quickly or forcefully.
   • 2001, Lisa M. Tillmann-Healy, Between Gay and Straight, page 47:

     Swinging through, the batter whacks it up the left field line .

   • 2012, L. Ron Hubbard, Mouthpiece:

     The sedan careened, flopped over to the right. Its headlights whacked up and then gracefully swept down into emptiness.

   • 2022, George Veck, One Visit:

     Once spotting Razza, a top-tier customer, he whacks up his thumb.

   • 2022, Vinnie Green, How to Steal Ten Million Dollars, page 143:

     Gloria's knowledge of his predilections, worth every ounce of cocaine she whacked up her snout;

10. (idiomatic) To increase or raise by a sizeable amount.
    • 2001, Australia. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: House of Representatives, page 26050:

      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.

    • 2008, Kate Santon, Perfect Calorie Counting:

      Frying onions whacks up the count – 100g of fried onions contains 146 calories.

    • 2018, Jon Morris, The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, page 178:

      That whacks up his glandular system and cool - o' - I'm here! "

    • 2021, Juno Dawson, Stay Another Day:

      Dad whacks up the heating in the people carrier.

11. (slang, idiomatic) To mess up.
    • 1957, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, Verbal Behavior, page 4:

      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;

    • 2011, Allie Spencer, Summer Loving, page 40:

      Did he get whacked up on ninety-nines and trash your auntie's shop?

    • 2023, Bob Bitchin, King Harbor:

      His memory was all whacked up and it took him years until he was almost normal.