whiff-whaff
See also: whiff whaff
English
Etymology 1
From Whiff-Waff, coined by Slazenger & Sons in 1900.
Noun
whiff-whaff (uncountable)
- (archaic) Table tennis.
- 2010, Ben Dirs & Tom Fordyce, Karma Chameleons, →ISBN:
- Jesus wept, there I'd been envisaging a weekend spent reading a book with only my top half hanging out of my tent, and the next thing I know I'm signed up for a spot of naked whiff-whaff. Not that Tom seemed too bothered. "I'm not bad at table-tennis," he said as we made our way to our pitch.
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Etymology 2
Onomatopoeia
Noun
whiff-whaff (plural whiff-whaffs)
- The breathy sound of something rushing quickly; whoosh.
- 1922, Stanley John Weyman, The Wild Geese, page 87:
- Then, no one saw precisely how it happened, whiff-whaff, Lemoine's weapon flew from his hand and struck the wall with a whirr and a jangle.
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Etymology 3
South Lancashire dialect for nonsense, unspecified words or deeds.
Noun
whiff-whaff (uncountable)
- (Lancashire, obsolete) Nonsense, words or deeds of little import.
- 1854, Tim Bobbin, Samuel Bamford, The dialect of South Lancashire: or, Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary, page 4:
- Whau, aw'll begin o' thisn' then. It's whiff-whaff Stuart, -- snifterin' Finch yo'known Virtue has laft o' -- truth is fro' o'flown!
- 1887, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, A Border Shepherdess: A Romance of Eskdale, page 96:
- If you dinna lackey my lady you'll be in for a whiff-whaff o' her sharp temper.
- 1894, Amelia E. Barr, The Flower of Gala Water: A Novel, page 197:
- You need a seasoning of my penetration, and so on, etc' I shall further intimate that it was, after all, a mare's nest — a whiff-whaff of country say-so — etc., etc.
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- (Lancashire) Unnecessary items or additions.
- 1938, Loraine Osborn, Your Voice Personality, page 137:
- Never, never, wear any kind of a whiff-whaff or a thing-ama-bob on your hat.
- 1975, Jack Newcombe, The best of the athletic boys: the white man's impact on Jim Thorpe:
- Haughton, a great believer in the value of straight football, asked Warner the night before the game if he had pulled such "whiff- whaff," as Percy termed it.
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Synonyms
- (nonsense): See Thesaurus:nonsense
- (unnecessary items): See Thesaurus:thingy
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