swack
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /swæk/
rhymes: -æk
Forms: form: swacks
Etymology: Considered dialect by Wright, but now widespread. Scottish National Dictionary proposes an origin in Old Scots (Middle English) swak ("to throw violently"). Compare Scots swak, swack (“to throw with violent force, dash", also "a hard blow or whack”). Compare also Middle Dutch swacken (“to shake, wave”).
Senses: examples: text: My eighteen holes was simply a long ride in a golfmobile, with me stopping far too many times to take a swack at the ball.
ref: 1970, Dwight David Eisenhower, The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, page 2032:
text: She hit Kevin with a hard swack, rudely knocking him to his senses.
ref: 1991, Claudia McCormick, Raven at Sunrise, page 73:
text: […]they needed nothing more than a good swack against a boulder.
ref: 1996 April, “SmartWool Socks”, in Backpacker, page 48:
glosses: Synonym of smack.
A sharp blow.
examples: text: The ball flew between them at incredible speed, hitting off their pads with a swack! that could be heard clearly above the steady splattering of the rain.
ref: 1981, Daniel Peters, The Luck of Huemac: A Novel about the Aztecs, page 351:
text: But with its impact, a sound similar to a swack! emanated from the ring and echoed throughout the gym.
ref: 1996, Evander Holyfield, Bernard Holyfield, Holyfield: The Humble Warrior, page 45:
text: The rest of his ragged company remained seated, their heads low, staring at the earth, panting in the thin air. There was no sound but the swack - swack of the machete.
ref: 2001, William Deverell, The Laughing Falcon, page 142:
text: But just then, they heard a swack and a man cried, “Ouch!”
ref: 2003, Sandra Dallas, The Chili Queen:
glosses: Synonym of smack.
The sound of a sharp blow.
examples: text: And Cyndi Lauper is ecstatic, first leaping up in the air and then, for good measure, racing over to give Fabulous Moolah a swack for good luck.
ref: 1985, Bert Randolph Sugar, George Napolitano, Wrestling's Great Grudge Matches: "battles and Feuds", page 18:
text: As Molly caught up with him she grabbed the lamprey and yanked. The mouth popped away from J.T.'s body with a swack.
ref: 1996, Lewis Nordan, Sugar Among the Freaks, page 47:
text: He walks up behind me and plants a kiss firmly between where my ear and jawline meet. The swack reverberates in my eardrum.
ref: 2015, Colleen Oakley, Before I Go:
text: But rain splatting against the bus window and the swack - swacking sound of the big windshield wipers up front punched me awake.
ref: 2002, Kezi Matthews, Flying Lessons, page 1:
glosses: Synonym of smack.
A wet sound such as a loud kiss.
examples: text: An area rug can supply the zing of pattern or a swack of color to a room that languishes from blandness .
ref: 1967, House & Garden - Volume 131, page 150:
glosses: Synonym of smack.
A striking stimulus.
examples: text: Nothing to say, the oilcloth moans under the swack of Mother's sponge.
ref: 1977, Colette Inez, Alive and Taking Names, and Other Poems, page 52:
text: She's taken a swack at you, accusing you of ruining your child. It is anger. Don't return it.
ref: 1979, Richard L. Weinberg, Lynn Goetsch Weinberg, Parent Prerogatives, page 47:
text: But the severity and brutality of Israeli repression in the Occupied Territories against ordinary people who have nothing to do with extremist activities is far more than the “swack” of frustration Frohlich describes.
ref: 2002, Friends Journal - Volume 48, page 46:
glosses: An attack, a swipe.
examples: text: We are certainly delighted to see you take another swack at microfilm and are sending our Chapter 14 on the subject.
ref: 1966, Civic Administration - Volume 18, page 3:
text: If we took too much at one time, we'd tip the police that we have operating motor vehicles. Instead, we steal it ten gallons at a swack.
ref: 1977, Gary K. Wolf, A Generation Removed, page 131:
text: I'm not sure how I feel about taking on the whole Establishment in one swack.
ref: 2011, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in America:
glosses: A single attempt or instance of taking action; a crack; a go.
examples: text: You have more swack with their management than they do, the same way you have more swack with foreign leaders than any of the Ambassadors that you talked to.
ref: 1999, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings on the Nomination of Hon. Richard C. Holbrooke to Serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, page 41:
glosses: Clout; influence.
examples: text: What the French criticize," says Le Monde, after a swack at Coca-Cola,“ is not so much Coca-Cola, as its orchestration, less the drink itself than the civilization of which it is a mark and the symbol.
ref: 1951, Fortune - Volume 43, Part 1, page 120:
glosses: A gulp or hearty swallow.
Derived terms: swack-up