slapping

Pluralslappings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of slap.

   The waves were slapping against the side of the boat.

   Slapping his knee, he burst out laughing at the joke.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb, and the construction tells them apart. With an object it is the blow, the careless placing or the penalty: slapping a child, slapping paint on a wall, slapping a fine on someone. Without one, as with the waves, it is the sound of striking. The same spelling also serves as the noun for the act and as a slang word for 'huge'.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of giving one or more slaps.

   The repeated slapping left a red mark across his cheek.

   Witnesses described a frenzied slapping during the argument outside the bar.

   Similarsmacking, hitting

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A bass-playing technique in which the player strikes and snaps the strings to produce a percussive, punchy tone.

   Like turning the bass into both a melody and a drum at the same time.

   The bassist's slapping drove the entire funk arrangement.

   Mastering slapping takes months of thumb and finger coordination.

4. 4
   adjectiveslang

   Extremely large; impressively big.

   He poured himself a slapping great glass of cider.

   The team won by a slapping margin nobody had expected.

   Similarwhopping, thumping, whacking, huge, massive

   Oppositetiny, narrow, small

   Note

   Slang for size, and it does its best work in front of a noun, often propped up by great. Dogdom admired "a slapping great collie bitch" in 1921. Like its partner whopping, it borrows force from the idea of a blow, so it suits jokey, emphatic talk. In careful writing, huge or enormous is the safer choice.

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