wham
/wam
/informal
exclamation
1Used to express the sound of a forcible impact: the bombs landed—wham!—right on target
1.1Used to express the idea of a sudden and dramatic occurrence: he asked me out for a drink, and—wham!—that was it...
- There was smoke all over the place, then, all of a sudden - wham!
- In fact, one day we were jogging along the path on the Hudson River when suddenly - wham!
- I saw the car coming at a hundred miles per hour and then suddenly, wham!
verb (whams, whamming, whammed) [no object, with adverbial]
1Strike something forcefully: trucks whammed into each other...
- Unluckily for me, I didn't have my seat belts on and I went flying out of my seat and wham right into the window.
- I bent my neck to watch the ball wham into the backboard, bounce a few times around the hoop - then went in.
1.1Make a loud sound as of a forceful impact: my heart was whamming away like a drum...
- She stopped abruptly, as she whammed into something with a sound thump.
- Dove through the sliding doors and whammed them shut, crouching on all fours, heart beating wildly, peering out at him.
Origin
1920s: imitative.
Rhymes
- open something up
- open-source
- open space
- open-spoken
- open stage
- open stance
- open stock
- open subroutine
- open system
- open table
- Open Tech
- open texture
- open-textured
- open-texturedness
- open the batting
- open the door to
- open the (or a) way
- open-throated
- open time
- open to dispute
- open-toe
- open-toed
- open to offers
- open-top
- open-topped