Whip-hand. To have the whip-hand (or whip-handle), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To have an advantage, to be in a position to command, to have the best of a matter.
1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, v. 1. Now, what say you, Mr. Flamefire? I shall have the whiphand of you presently.
d. 1701. Dryden [Century]. The archangel . . . has the whip-hand of her.
1884. Century Mag., xxxviii. 932. Why, what matter? They know that we shall keep the whip-handle.
1887. Field, 24 Dec. A scheme to get the whip-hand over them.
Whiphandle, subs. (old).—See
quot.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, ii. xxvii. These little ends of men and dandiprats (whom in Scotland they call whiphandles (manches d'estrilles), and knots of a tar-barrel) are commonly very testy and choleric.
2. See Whiphand.
Whip-her-jenny, subs. phr. (old).—A
term of contempt.
Whip-jack, subs. phr. (old).—A
beggar shamming shipwreck.
Hence a generic term of contempt.
c. 1530. Ponet [Maitland, On Reformation, 74]. Albeit one Boner (a bare whippe Jacke) for lucre of money toke vpon him to be thy father, and than to mary thy mother, yet thou wast persone Savage's bastarde.
1611. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1. A mere whip-jack, and that is, in the commonwealth of rogues, a slave that can talk of sea-fight.
c. 1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Whip-Jacks, c. the tenth Order of the Canting Crew; Counterfeit Mariners Begging with false Passes, pretending Shipwrecks, great Losses at Sea, etc., narrow escapes; telling dismal Stories, having learnt Tar-terms on purpose, but are meer Cheats.
1753. Richardson, Grandison, vi. 156. Sir Charles Grandison is none of your gew-gaw whip-jacks that you know not where to have.
1791. Bamfylde-Moore Carew, Oath of Canting Crew. Swaddlers, Irish toyls, whip-jacks.
Whip-king, subs. phr. (old).—One
who controls or compels a
king; a 'king-maker.'
1610. Holland, Camden, 571. Richard Nevill, that whip-king.
Whipmaster, subs. (old).—A flagellator:
the actual word in the
orig. which has long been recognised
as standard English: see
Whipper.
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 56. Woe to our backsides, he is a greater whipmaster than Busby himself.
Whipper, subs. (common, but old).—Anything
super-excellent: cf.
Whopper and Whip, verb.
1530. Heywood, Four P.'s [Palmer, Pardoner, Poticary, Pedlar], [Dodsley, Old Plays (1744), i. 103]. Mark wel this, this relique heer is a whipper, My freend unfayned, this is a slipper Of one of the seven slepers, be sure.
2. (old).—A flagellant: see Whipmaster.
d. 1656. Hall, Women's Vail, 1. A brood of mad hereticks, which arose in the church; whom they called Flagellantes, 'the whippers.'
Whipper-in, subs. phr. (political).—See
Whip.
Whipper-snapper, subs. phr.
(common).—'A very small but
sprightly boy' (B. E., c. 1696);
spec. a precocious callow youth,
or pert girl: always more or less
in contempt. As adj. = diminutive,
insignificant: also Whipping-snapping.
