Word: thwack Part of Speech: verb Etymology: The verb is probably: * partly onomatopoeic, from the sound of something being beaten (compare whack); and * partly derived from Late Middle English twakken, twake (“to hit (someone) with something; to pat; to stroke”), probably from Middle English thakken, thakke (“to dab; to pat; to stroke”) [and other forms] (whence thack (obsolete except Britain, dialectal)), from Old English þaccian (“to beat; to pat; to touch softly, stroke; to strike gently, clap, tap”), from Proto-West Germanic *þakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *þakwōną (“to pat; to tap; to touch”), from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to grasp with the hand; to touch”). Doublet of tangent. The noun and interjection are derived from the verb. Cognates * Latin tangō (“touch”) * Old Dutch þakolōn (“to stroke”) * Old Norse þykkr (“a blow, thump, thwack”) (Icelandic þjaka, þjökka (“to beat, thump, thwack”); Norwegian tjåka (“to strike, beat”)) Pronunciation: /θwæk/ 1. To hit (someone or something) hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; to thrash, to whack. Labels: transitive Example: This carter thwacketh his horse upon the croup, / And they began to drawen and to stoop. Example: Flaies lustily thwack, / least plough séede lack. 2. To drive or force (someone or something) by, or as if by, beating or hitting; to knock. Labels: also, figuratively, transitive Example: But let him ſvveare ſo, and he ſhall not ſtay, / VVee'l thvvack him hence vvith Diſtaffes. 3. To pack (people or things) closely together; to cram. Labels: transitive Example: [W]hen hee comes to deſcribe the office of his imaginarie doctor [he] thvvacks fourteene Scriptures into the margent, vvhereof not any one hath any iuſt colour of inference to his purpoſe: […] Example: [W]ho vvould have thought a man could have thvvackt together ſo many incongruous ſimilitudes, had it not been to defend the motley i[n]coherence of a patch'd Miſſall? 4. To decisively defeat (someone) in a contest; to beat, to thrash. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: 3 [Servingman] VVhy here's he that vvas vvont to thvvacke our Generall, Caius Martius. / 1 VVhy do you ſay, thvvacke our Generall? / 3 I do not ſay thvvacke our Generall, but he vvas alvvayes good enough for him. Example: [W]hat adventurous knight ever thought of the lady's terror, when he went to thwack giant, dragon, or magician, in her presence, and for her deliverance? 5. To crowd or pack (a place or thing) with people, objects, etc. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: And my lad Aſcanius with a Troian mantel adorning, / Weau'd woorks thwackt with honor, to her gifts this parlye ſhe lincketh. 6. To fall down hard with a thump. Labels: intransitive Example: And see, that urchin, ho-ieroe! / His truant legs they sink from under, / And to the quaking sheet below [i.e., ice on which he has been skating], / Down thwacks he, with a thud like thunder! 7. To be crammed or filled full. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: [A]ll that vvere vvithin the audience of theſe vvords and dovvn the Church, vvhich vvas as full as it could thvvack in thick multitudes, gave a loud general applauſe. 8. Of people: to crowd or pack a place. Labels: intransitive, obsolete, rare Example: All the vviſe vvenches i'the Tovvn vvill thvvack to ſuch Sanctuaries, vvhen the times are troubleſome, and Troopers trace the ſtreets in terror.