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Added 9 October 2026

thwack

/θwæk/ verb

verb Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about thwack at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

To hit (someone or something) hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; to thrash, to whack.
To hit (someone or something) hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; to thrash, to whack.
To drive or force (someone or something) by, or as if by, beating or hitting; to knock.

noun

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.
A dull or heavy slapping sound.

interjection

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

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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