thwack

verb

1. (transitive)To hit (someone or something) hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; to thrash, to whack.

   “This carter thwacketh his horse upon the croup, / And they began to drawen and to stoop.”

   “Flaies lustily thwack, / least plough séede lack.”

   “Run, run, come you hither / Novv, take all my Cuſhions dovvn and thvvack them ſoundly, / After my Feaſt of Millers: for their Buttocks / Have left a peck of flovver in them, beat them carefully […]”

   “VVith that Nic bounc'd up vvith a Spring equal to that of one of your nimbleſt Tumblers or Rope dancers, falls foul upon John Bull to ſnatch the Cudgel he had in his Hand, that he might Thvvack Levvis vvith it.”

   “I had finished my toilet, and was loitering with Frank Bracebridge in the library, when we heard a distant thwacking sound, which he informed me was a signal for the serving up of the dinner.”

2. (also, figuratively, transitive)To drive or force (someone or something) by, or as if by, beating or hitting; to knock.

   “But let him ſvveare ſo, and he ſhall not ſtay, / VVee'l thvvack him hence vvith Diſtaffes.”

3. (transitive)To pack (people or things) closely together; to cram.

   “[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: […]”

   “[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. (figuratively, transitive)To decisively defeat (someone) in a contest; to beat, to thrash.

   “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.”

   “[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?”

   “If we count three before the come of thee, thwacked thou art, and must go to the women.”

5. (obsolete, transitive)To crowd or pack (a place or thing) with people, objects, etc.

   “And my lad Aſcanius with a Troian mantel adorning, / Weau'd woorks thwackt with honor, to her gifts this parlye ſhe lincketh.”

6. (intransitive)To fall down hard with a thump.

   “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. (intransitive, obsolete)To be crammed or filled full.

   “[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. (intransitive, obsolete, rare)Of people: to crowd or pack a place.

   “All the vviſe vvenches i'the Tovvn vvill thvvack to ſuch Sanctuaries, vvhen the times are troubleſome, and Troopers trace the ſtreets in terror.”

noun

1. An act of hitting hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; a whack; also, a powerful stroke involved in such hitting; a blow, a strike.

   “Him Ralph encountred, and straight grew / A fierce Dispute betwixt them two: / Th'one arm'd with Metall, t'other with Wood; / This fit for bruise, and that for Blood. / With many a stiff thwack, many a bang, / Hard Crab-tree and old Iron rang; / While none that saw them could divine / To which side Conquest would encline: […]”

   “Noble Captain, Lend a reaſonable Thvvack, for the Love of God, vvith that Cane of yours, over theſe poor Shoulders.”

   “[H]e trudged rapidly up the steep avenue of the Alhambra, singing as he went, and now and then bestowing a hearty thwack with a cudgel on the flanks of his donkey, either by way of cadence to the song, or refreshment to the animal; for dry blows serve in lieu for provender in Spain, for all beasts of burden.”

   “But he was stopped on the way by a portly sperm whale, that begged a few moments' confidential business with him. That business consisted in fetching the Commodore's craft such a thwack, that with all his pumps going he made straight for the nearest port to heave down and repair.”

2. A dull or heavy slapping sound.

   “I had scrambled out of the coach, and was instinctively settling my cravat, when somebody brushed roughly by me, and I heard a smart thwack upon the coachman’s ear. […] And then came a second thwack, aimed at the driver's other ear, but which missed it, and hit him on the nose, causing a terrible effusion of blood.”

   “"It's a comfort they're most on'em females," he pursued, sounding a thwack on his knee as he settled himself agreeably in his seat.”

intj

1. Used to represent the dull or heavy sound of someone or something being hit or slapped.

   “Three watrie clowds ſhymring toe the craft they rampired hizzing, / Three whern's fierd gliſtring, with ſouthwynds rufflered huffling. / Now doe they rayſe gaſtly lightnings, now griſlye reboundings / Of ruffe raffe roaring, mens harts with terror agryſing. / With peale meale ramping, with thwick thwack ſturdilye thundring.”

   “And then—Thwack! Anne had brought her slate down on Gilbert's head and cracked it—slate, not head—clear across.”