Can anyone tell me what a "whack" is?

Question

You know when someone says, "it's out of whack", what the hell is a whack, and where did that saying come from anyway?

Answer 1

Yes, I actually found an answer to this question!!!

Whack started life in the eighteenth century. It was probably an imitative noise, or perhaps derived from the older thwack, also imitative. The adjective wacky, for somebody or something that is odd, crazy or peculiar (nowadays in a mildly funny way), may come from whack, in that somebody who was crazy behaved as though he had been hit about the head.

The noun developed a number of subsidiary senses. At one time, it could mean a share in a distribution, a portion; this sense was originally thieves’ cant—Francis Grose, in his Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue of 1785, has “Whack, a share of a booty obtained by fraud” (could physical violence have been involved in some cases?). British English has a couple of phrases that retain that sense. One is pay one’s whack, to pay one’s agreed contribution to shared expenses. Another is top whack, or full whack, for the maximum price or rate for something (“if you go to that shop, you’ll pay top whack”).

There are some other old figurative senses, including a bargain or agreement (which evolved out of the idea of a share), and an attempt at doing something (“I’ll take a whack at that job”). These are mostly American, and it was in the US that the sense you refer to first appeared, in the latter part of the nineteenth century. There seems to have been a phrase in fine whack during that century, meaning that something was in good condition or excellent fettle. (It appears in a letter by John Hay, President Lincoln’s amanuensis, dated August 1863, which describes the President: “The Tycoon is in fine whack. I have rarely seen him more serene and busy. He is managing this war, the draft, foreign relations, and planning a reconstruction of the Union, all at once”.) It doesn’t often turn up in writing, though, so there’s some doubt how widespread it was.

To be out of whack would then have meant the opposite—that something wasn’t on top form or working well. It was first applied to people with ailments (“My back is out of whack”). In the early years of the twentieth century it started to refer to mechanisms. It might be that the sense was influenced by the idea that faulty mechanisms responded to a quick thwack.

Answer 2

The word "whack" is used in a lot of idioms. Like, "take a whack at it" is similar to "take a stab at it."

If something is "out of whack" it means it is not functioning correctly or off-balance.

The word "whack" is also used in slang to mean "crazy."

Answer 3

You throw a wrench in it, you've got a whack. Sounds like you need a good "wrench" in the head to make you understand.

Answer 4

ok lizzie borden took and ax gave her mother 40 whacks when she seen what she had done she gave her dad 41 . unable to perform its out of whack.

Answer 5

Same as "it's out of kilter." I don't know what kilter means either, but it is obviously the same as a "whack."

The only other definition of whack I know of is what person A might do to person B "upside his head," as in, "a whack upside the head."

If you figure out anything else here, please let us all know!

Answer 6

George "Dubbya" Bush's brain...it's outta whack

Answer 7

whack means "crazy"!!!!!!!!!!!!
For example-that person is whack.

Answer 8

Either it's not right or it's broken. something like that. Although I have no idea where it came from. Probably some stupid rapper who ran out of words that rhyme

Answer 9

It means that its out of sync. Out of the normal, or out of the usual.

Answer 10

1. means it isnt working.

2. means situation/person/thing is crazy