释义 |
▪ I. whopping, vbl. n. colloq. or vulgar.|ˈhwɒpɪŋ| [f. whop v. + -ing1.] The action of the verb whop; a severe beating or flogging; hence, an overwhelming defeat. Also attrib.
1812Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 139 An athletic Nottinghamshire man, who..gave very unfavourable specimens of wapping talent. 1818Ibid. (N.S.) II. 189 He wanted a good wapping and he had got it. 1838Dickens O. Twist xlii, I should like to..have the whopping of 'em. 1885Mrs. C. Praed Head Stat. xvii, Blue-eyed fair-haired little girls who never fell into tantrums or wanted whopping. ▪ II. ˈwhopping, ppl. a. colloq. or vulgar. [f. as prec. + -ing2.] That whops; almost always fig., that is a ‘whopper’; abnormally large or great; ‘whacking’, ‘thumping’. Rarely spec. (a) monstrously false; (b) of surpassing excellence, uncommonly good, first-rate. Also quasi-adv. = hugely, immensely.
a1625R. G. in Stanley Papers i. (Chetham Soc.) 50 Our Chroniclers..stowed their volumes with wapping Tales of my Lord Maiors Horse. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 98 See him in bad Weather, in his Fur-Cap and whapping large Watch-Coat. 1818Scott Rob Roy xxiii, A wapping weaver he was, and wrought my first pair o' hose. 1836Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xvii. (1839) 61 What a wappin large place that would make. 1851Amer. Mag. Nov. 113 A couple of ‘whopping’ pumpkin stories. 1869Punch 31 July 34/1 That's a wopping majority against us. 1881Freeman in Stephens Life & Lett. (1895) II. 224 The Turk comes down with a whopping bit of oppression now and then, but leaves you alone between whiles. |