whipping

Pluralwhippings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A punishment in which a person is struck repeatedly with a whip.

   The court sentenced the offender to a public whipping in the square.

   He still bore the scars from a whipping he had endured as a boy.

   Similarflogging, lashing, beating, thrashing

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of whip.

   He stood at the counter, whipping eggs for the cake.

   Rain came whipping across the open field as the storm grew.

   Note

   Every sense of the verb flows through this form, including ones the noun never took on: a party whipping its members to vote with it, or a rider whipping a horse into action. As a gerund it takes a direct object (whipping the cream by hand takes patience). That sets it apart from the kitchen noun, which needs of (the whipping of the cream).

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A heavy defeat, especially a lopsided loss in a game or contest.

   The home side handed their rivals a 6–0 whipping.

   After such a whipping, the coach demanded changes before the next match.

   Similarthrashing, drubbing, hammering, trouncing, beating

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The beating of cream to mix in air and turn it thick and fluffy.

   Proper whipping incorporates enough air to give the cream real volume.

   The whipping should stop the moment soft peaks begin to form.

   Similarwhisking, beating

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A length of cord or thread used to lash or bind something tightly.

   He bound the cracked shaft with a neat whipping of waxed thread.

   A few whippings of twine kept the bundle from coming apart on the cart.

   Similarbinding, lashing

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The lashing of tightly wound cord around the end of a rope to bind its strands.

   Like the little plastic tip on a shoelace that keeps the threads from unraveling.

   Before splicing, she finished each rope end with a tight whipping.

   The bosun checked that every line on deck had a proper whipping.

   Similarbinding

   Note

   A seaman's safeguard against fraying: tightly wound twine at a rope's end holds the strands so they cannot unlay, or untwist. The US Army's Marine Crewman's Handbook (1999) warns that a line left without a whipping will unlay of its own accord. The word is countable for the finished binding (put a whipping on that end) and uncountable for the craft itself. Compare the cord used for binding, which names the material rather than the work.

7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The sewing of single leaves into sections by overcasting thread along their edges.

   The binder repaired the album using whipping to secure each loose leaf.

   Whipping let her rebind the cropped plates that could not be sewn through folds.

   Similarwhipstitching

   Note

   A bookbinder's answer to leaves with no fold to sew through. Single sheets are gathered into sections, and the thread is overcast around their edges, looping over the edge rather than running down a fold. Whipstitching names the same work. The image is shared with the binding of a rope's end: thread wrapped round and round an edge until it holds.

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