> as lemmas

1940 J. R. Tunis Kid from Tomkinsville x. 151 Interest round the field now centered in the Kid's chances for a no-hit game... On the bench everyone realized it too, but everyone kept discreetly quiet on account of the Whammy. Mustn't put the Whammy on him!

1951 Al Capp's Li'l Abner July Evil-Eye Fleegle is th' name, an' th' ‘whammy’ is my game. Mudder Nature endowed me wit' eyes which can putrefy citizens t' th' spot!.. There is th' ‘single whammy’! That, friend, is th' full, pure power o' one o' my evil eyes! It's dynamite, friend, an' I do not t'row it around lightly!.. And, lastly—th' ‘double whammy’—namely, th' full power o' both eyes—which I hopes I never hafta use.

1952 B. Malamud Natural 75 They were afflicted with more than the usual number of hexes and whammies and practised all sorts of magic to undo them.

1964 J. Masters Trial at Monomoy ii. 66 You heard that our local witch has put her whammy on you now?

1970 Daily Tel. 30 Oct. (Colour Suppl.) 19/2 That smile, a huge, sweet, melting smile, a whammy of an MRA smile, a West-Coast switched-on-sincere smile, which envelops just everybody.

1976 New Yorker 16 Feb. 107/1 In the Germany scenes, Wertmuller achieves the effect of liveliness through one whammy after another. The starving prisoners in the camp are beaten and murdered to the tune of the Ride of the Valkyries.

1979 C. James Pillars of Hercules iii. xi. 122 Holmes was a nonconformist in a conformist age, yet still won all the conformist rewards. It was a double whammy.