fair crack of the whip

A fair opportunity

get cracking

To get moving quickly

whip /(h)wip/

noun

1. A lash with a handle for punishing or driving
2. A stroke administered by a whip or similar implement
3. An act of whipping or a whipping motion
4. A driver, a coachman
5. Someone who enforces the attendance and discipline of a political party
6. A call made on members of parliament to be in their places in readiness for an important division (called, according to the number of times the message is underlined as indication of urgency, three-line whip, etc; five-line whip is no longer used)
7. A whipper-in, the person who manages the hounds
8. A simple form of hoisting apparatus, a small tackle consisting of a single rope and block
9. A preparation of whipped cream, eggs, etc
10. A whipping or overcasting
11. (also, more usu, whipˈ-round) a collection of cash contributions made hastily among a group of people
12. An individual share in money collected in equal amounts
13. An instant (Scot)
14. An arm carrying a sail of a windmill
15. A long twig, slender branch or shoot
16. A fairground ride featuring cars that move with sudden jerks

transitive verb (whippˈing; whipped or (old) whipt)

1. To strike with a lash
2. To drive, or force to move, with lashes
3. To punish with lashes, or (loosely) by spanking
4. To strike in a manner suggesting a lash
5. To lash with sarcasm
6. To lash (eg a crowd) into an emotional state
7. To defeat, outdo (informal)
8. To stiffen (eg cream or egg whites) or make (eggs, etc) frothy, by rapid beating with a whisk or similar utensil
9. To keep (eg a party) together
10. To fly-fish
11. To overlay (eg one cord with another)
12. To bind round
13. To sew lightly
14. To overcast (eg a seam)
15. To move quickly, snatch (with up, away, out, etc)
16. To steal (informal)
17. To prepare at short notice (with up; informal)
18. To rouse (support, enthusiasm, etc; with up)

intransitive verb

1. To move nimbly
2. To move in the manner of a whiplash
3. To make a cast in fly-fishing

whipˈless adjective

whipˈlike adjective

whippˈer noun

1. Someone who or something that whips
2. An official who inflicts the penalty of whipping

whippˈiness noun

whippˈing noun

1. The action of lashing
2. Corporal punishment, esp with a whip or lash
3. A defeat
4. A binding of twine, eg at the end of a rope
5. Material for binding in this way
6. Overcasting

whippˈy adjective

1. Whiplike
2. Pliant
3. Supple

whipˈ-and-derrˈy noun

A hoisting apparatus consisting of a whip (qv above) and a derrick

whipˈbird noun

The coachwhip-bird

whipˈcat noun (old)

A tailor

whipˈcord noun

1. Cord for making whips
2. A fabric with a bold steep warp twill, used chiefly for dresses, suits and coats
3. A whiplike seaweed such as Chorda filum or Chordaria flagelliformis

adjective

(also whipˈcordy) like whipcord

whip graft noun

A graft made by fitting a tongue cut on the scion to a slit cut slopingly in the stock

whipˈ-graft transitive verb

whipˈ-grafting noun

whip hand noun

1. The hand that holds the whip
2. The advantage

whip handle noun

1. The handle or stock of a whip
2. An advantage

whipˈjack noun (old)

A whining beggar who pretended to be a sailor

whipˈlash noun

1. The lash of a whip
2. Something resembling or suggesting the lash of a whip or its action
3. (also whiplash injury) an injury to the neck caused by the sharp forwards-and-backwards wrenching it suffers in a vehicle collision

intransitive verb

To move like a whiplash

whippˈer-in noun

1. An assistant to a huntsman, who controls the hounds
2. An official whose job is to enforce the discipline of a political party, a whip (obsolete)
3. At any moment in a race, the horse in the last place (slang)
4. A little or young insignificant but pretentious or irritating person

whipping boy noun

1. A boy educated along with a prince and punished for the royal pupil's faults (historical)
2. Anyone on whom falls the odium of, or blame and punishment for, the shortcomings of others

whippˈing-cheer noun (obsolete; humorous)

Flogging

whipping cream noun

Cream with enough butterfat in it to allow it to be beaten stiff

whippˈing-post noun

1. A post to which offenders are tied to be whipped
2. The punishment itself

whippˈing-top (or whipˈ-top) noun

A top kept spinning by means of a whip

whip-round see n above.

whipˈsaw noun

A narrow saw for dividing timber lengthways, usu set in a frame and often worked by two people

transitive verb

1. To cut with a whipsaw
2. To have the advantage of at every point, defeat at every turn (slang)

whip scorpion noun

Any arachnid of the order Uropygi, slightly resembling true scorpions but having no sting and usu having a whiplike appendage at the rear of the body

whip snake noun

Any of various snakes resembling a whiplash, as Masticophis flagellum (the coachwhip snake) and species of Philodryas, etc

whip socket noun

A socket to hold the butt of a whip

whipˈstaff noun

A former steering device, a vertical wooden lever controlling a ship's rudder

whipˈstall noun (aeronautics)

A stall as the result of which the nose of the aircraft whips forward and down

intransitive verb and transitive verb

To go, or put, into such a stall

whipˈstitch noun

1. A small overcasting stitch
2. A hasty composition
3. A tailor
4. A kind of half-ploughing or raftering (dialect)

transitive verb and intransitive verb

To sew (something) using a whipstitch

whipˈstock noun

1. The rod or handle of a whip
2. In an oil well, a tapered steel wedge used to deflect the drill bit from a straight line

whipˈtail or whipˈtailed adjective

Having a long, slender tail

whip-top see whipping-top above.

whipˈworm noun

A parasitic worm of the genus Trichocephalus or Trichuris, with posterior end thick and anterior long and thin, found as a parasite in human intestines

fair crack of the whip

A reasonable or fair chance given to one to do something properly

whip and spur

With great haste

whip in

To act as a whipper-in

whip into shape

1. To get (a person or group) into a condition ready for action, etc by force or rigorous training
2. Generally, to reshape vigorously to one's satisfaction

whips of (Aust and NZ informal)

A large amount of

whip the cat (old)

1. To practise small economies
2. To work by the day as a dressmaker, tailor, etc, going from house to house
3. To idle
4. To play a practical joke