Contextualizebeta

able whackets

noun

Etymology

Possibly from able, as in able seaman, and whack.

Definitions

  1. Blows on the hand from a knotted or twisted handkerchief, especially given as a…

    Blows on the hand from a knotted or twisted handkerchief, especially given as a punishment to the loser of certain card games.

    • The chief amusement or game in use in the midshipmen's berth, was ‘able whackets’, a pastime in which cards, blasphemy, and hard knocks were agreeably mingled.
    • Instead of the usual sailors' games of cards and ablewhackets, there was the clicking of dice, with games of parcheesi unfolding on chequerboards of rope […].

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for able whackets. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA