Fred had one of the best whing-dings this
town has ever seen. Yes, it was some
whinger.whingerGo to whing-ding.
whip offGo to beat off.
whip one’s wireGo to beat the dummy.
whipped 1. mod. exhausted; beat. Wo w,
you look whipped. 2. mod. alcohol intox-
icated. She was too whipped to find
money to pay her bill. 3. mod. great.
The band was whipped and the food was
unbelievable.
whipsaw 1. tv. to assault a person; to gang
up and beat a person. The gang whip-
sawed the old man for about ten minutes.
What kind of creeps would whipsaw an
old buzzard like that? 2. tv. [for the stock
market] to reduce the capital of investors
by frightening them into selling when
stock prices are low and encouraging
them to buy when prices are high. (Se-
curities markets.) A lot of people were
whipsawed in the recent market volatility.
The market will whipsaw the investor
who is not cautious.
whip something into shapeGo to lick
something into shape.
whip something offtv. to finish some-
thing quickly, especially food or drink.
Did you just whip that whole pizza off? T
Lemme whip off this sandwich, and I’ll be
right with you. TShe whipped off the
dishes in ten minutes.
whip the dummyGo to beat the dummy.
whirlybirdn. a helicopter. See that
whirlybird up there? It’s timing your speed.
Slow down. The whirlybird landed on
the roof of the hospital.
whiskers (man)Go to Mr. Whiskers.
whiskey tenorn. a strained tenor. He’s
a whiskey tenor, but a good one. Four
whiskey tenors do not a barbershop quar-
tet make.
whistle-blowern. someone who calls a
halt to something; an informer; an en-
forcer; a stool (pigeon). I don’t know
who the whistle-blower was, but a good
time was really ruined. Some whistle-
blower put Pete behind bars for a few days.
whistle in the darkin. to guess aimlessly;
to speculate as to a fact. Am I close, or
am I just whistling in the dark? She was
whistling in the dark. She has no idea of
what’s going on.
whistlern. someone who is a police in-
former; a stoolie. (Underworld. More
specialized than whistle-blower.)
Tracy turned into a whistler after her last
little vacation. Who’s the whistler who
squealed?
whitebreadmod. plain; dull. Naw, the
whole thing is too whitebread. If I
wanted a whitebread vacation, I’d have
gone to the beach.
white elephantn. a useless or unwanted
object. How can I get rid of this white
elephant? Take all those white elephants
to the f lea market.
white hatn. a good guy; a hero. (From
Western movies where you could tell the
good guys from the bad guys by the color
of their hats: white for good, black for
bad.) He seems like a white hat, but he’s
a worm. The white hats don’t always
win, you know.
white-knuckle 1. mod. having to do with
an event that creates a lot of tension, es-
pecially an airplane flight. We came in
during the storm on a white-knuckle f light
from Chicago. 2. mod. of a person who
is made tense by something such as fly-
ing or sailing. I’m afraid I’m a white-
knuckle sailor, and you’d all be much hap-
pier if I stay on dry land. My cousin is
a white-knuckle f lyer and would rather
take the train.
white knuckler 1. n. a tense and nervous
person. You white knucklers are just go-
ing to have to relax. I’m such a white
knuckler before a test. 2. n. a suspenseful
event, such as an exciting movie or a
rough airplane flight. The movie was
a real white knuckler. We sat through
the white knuckler even without popcorn.
whitewash 1. tv. to make something look
better than it really is; to conceal some-
thing bad. Now, don’t try to whitewashwhinger