whip

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
whip/wɪp/

▶noun

• 1 a strip of leather or length of cord fastened to a handle, used for beating a person or urging on an animal.

• 2 an official of a political party appointed to maintain parliamentary discipline among its members, especially so as to ensure attendance and voting in debates.

  ■ Brit. a written notice from such an official requesting attendance for voting.

  ■ (the whip) Brit. membership of the group of MPs that form the official elected representation of a particular political party, together with the duties or rights associated with such membership.

• 3 a dessert made from cream or eggs beaten into a light fluffy mass.

• 4 short for whipper-in.

• 5 a slender, unbranched shoot or plant.

• 6 a rope-and-pulley hoisting apparatus.

▶verb (whips, whipping, whipped)

• 1 beat with a whip.

  ■ (of a flexible object or rain or wind) strike or beat violently.

  ■ (whip someone up) deliberately excite or provoke someone.

  ■ (whip something up) stimulate a particular feeling in someone.

  ■ informal defeat heavily in a sporting contest.

• 2 move or take out fast or suddenly.

  ■ (whip something up) make or prepare something, especially food, very quickly.

• 3 beat (cream, eggs, or other food) into a froth.

• 4 Brit. informal steal.

• 5 (whip in) Hunting act as whipper-in.

• 6 bind with spirally wound twine.

  ■ sew or gather with overcast stitches.

• 7 (as adj. whipped) N. Amer. informal worn out; exhausted.

– phrases
the whip hand a position of power or control.

– derivatives
whip-like adjective,
whipper noun,
whipping noun.

– origin ME: prob. from Mid. Low Ger. and MDu. wippen ‘swing, leap, dance’, from a Gmc base meaning ‘move quickly’.