whips

Informal. to defeat or overcome: to whip the opposition; to whip a bad habit.

to hoist or haul by means of a whip.

to move quickly and suddenly; pull, jerk, seize, or the like, with a sudden movement (often followed by out, in, into, etc.): He whipped his gun out of its holster.

to fish (a stream, lake, etc.) with rod and line, especially by making repeated casts: I whipped the stream all day and caught nothing.

to beat (eggs, cream, etc.) to a froth with an eggbeater, whisk, fork, or other implement in order to mix in air and cause expansion.

to overlay or cover (cord, rope, etc.) with cord, thread, or the like wound about it: to whip the end of a hawser.

to wind (cord, twine, thread, etc.) about something: The tailor whipped the seams with heavy thread.

to use a light overcasting stitch in sewing.

a windmill vane.

Hunting. a whipper-in.

a tackle consisting of a fall rove through a single standing block (single whip) so as to change the direction of hauling with no mechanical advantage, or consisting of a fall secured at one end and rove through a single running and a single standing block (double whip) so as to change the direction of hauling with a mechanical advantage of two, neglecting friction. Compare gun tackle.

the wrapping around the end of a whipped cord or the like.

Also called whirl. Machinery. eccentric rotation of a shaft having its center line slightly curved between supporting bearings.

a branchless shoot of a woody plant, especially one resulting from the first year's growth of a bud or graft.

Chiefly British. a person who uses a whip as part of his or her work, as a driver of horses or a coachman.