wallop
/ˈwɒləp
/- Cordelia leaned over and walloped him once, hard, on the back.
- Angrily, he grabbed the first thing that came to hand (a wooden spoon), crossed the room in three strides and walloped Simeon as hard as he could.
- They dive over the plate to wallop outside pitches up the middle, knowing the inside strike won't be called.
- True to his ultra-aggressive nature, Lance has decided to wallop his rivals who think he can be had with a psychological blow right out of the gate.
- Last week was not only good for the Party, it was a triumph for Fox, which walloped its cable rivals and the ‘big three’ networks in the ratings.
- But Cosmos still remain one of the teams which inflicted a heavy defeat on Bucks when they walloped them 5-1 in a Coca Cola Cup in Umtata a few years ago.
- I must go down to the basement at once with my trusty two-by-four and administer a few more bracing wallops.
- With that Allardyce stands up and wallops Mark and Lard, leaving them flying into the crowd.
- It appears that she got a hefty wallop from something heavy, which has pushed her sideways several inches over the edge of her plinth.
- It's a scene that really packs a wallop because it's believable.
- Whatever accompaniment you choose, tomato water lets its colors shine through but packs a wallop of supporting flavor.
- Reports are that, like the other quake drinks, it packs a wallop.
- Blossom hill White Zinfandel 2000 Easy drinking and packing a huge fruity wallop, this delicious vintage reeks of luscious, ripe strawberries and cream with a refreshingly crisp finish.
- Wallop was a slang term for beer, and Codd's wallop came to be used by beer drinkers as a derogatory term for weak or gassy beer, or for soft drinks.
- In particular, their Jacobite Ale packs a bit of a wallop.
Origin
Middle English (as a noun denoting a horse's gallop): from Old Northern French walop (noun), waloper (verb), perhaps from a Germanic phrase meaning 'run well', from the bases of well1 and leap. Compare with gallop. From 'gallop' the senses 'bubbling noise of a boiling liquid' and then 'sound of a clumsy movement' arose, leading to the current senses.
The original meaning of wallop was ‘to gallop ’, and the Old French sources of gallop (early 16th century) and wallop, galoper and waloper, are related. It seems that there is something gratifying about the way wallop sounds that makes people use it in lively ways. The next sense to develop was ‘to boil violently’, and then ‘to move in a heavy or clumsy way’, and ‘to flop about, dangle, flap’. The modern sense, ‘to hit very hard’, appeared in the early 19th century. See also codswallop