"whiff-whaff" meaning in English

See whiff-whaff in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: From Whiff-Waff, coined by Slazenger & Sons in 1900. Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} whiff-whaff (uncountable)
  1. (archaic) Table tennis. Tags: archaic, uncountable Categories (topical): Sports
    Sense id: en-whiff-whaff-en-noun-LZAOm-N7 Disambiguation of Sports: 70 17 4 9 Categories (other): English apophonic reduplications, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English apophonic reduplications: 59 17 6 18 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 67 13 2 18 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 80 8 1 10 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 79 9 2 11 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 67 14 3 16
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Noun

Forms: whiff-whaffs [plural]
Etymology: Onomatopoeia Head templates: {{en-noun}} whiff-whaff (plural whiff-whaffs)
  1. The breathy sound of something rushing quickly; whoosh. Synonyms: whiff whaff, wiff-waff
    Sense id: en-whiff-whaff-en-noun-xMQUFJUB
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Noun

Etymology: South Lancashire dialect for nonsense, unspecified words or deeds. Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} whiff-whaff (uncountable)
  1. (Lancashire, obsolete) Nonsense, words or deeds of little import. Tags: obsolete, uncountable Synonyms: nonsense
    Sense id: en-whiff-whaff-en-noun-2EjSPU5j Categories (other): Lancashire English
  2. (Lancashire) Unnecessary items or additions. Tags: uncountable Synonyms: thingy
    Sense id: en-whiff-whaff-en-noun--gMaF4jY Categories (other): Lancashire English
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 3

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for whiff-whaff meaning in English (6.2kB)

{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_text": "From Whiff-Waff, coined by Slazenger & Sons in 1900.",
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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          "_dis": "59 17 6 18",
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          "_dis": "67 13 2 18",
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          "_dis": "80 8 1 10",
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        {
          "_dis": "70 17 4 9",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Sports",
          "orig": "en:Sports",
          "parents": [
            "Human activity",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "[2008 September 2, Chris Irvine, “Boris Johnson in whiff-whaff ping-pong row”, in The Telegraph, retrieved 2020-11-24",
          "text": "Boris Johnson's claim ping-pong was originally a Victorian English invention called whiff-whaff has been attacked by the descendants of the world's oldest sporting and games manufacturer.]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Ben Dirs, Tom Fordyce, Karma Chameleons",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 July 17, Howard Jacobson, “Whiff! Whaff! The beautiful game may be coming home”, in The Independent, retrieved 2020-11-24",
          "text": "\"The French looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner,\" he said. \"We looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to play whiff-whaff.\" In fact table tennis was also called gossima in the early days, and, given that Gossamer is the brand name of a condom, the Mayor of London missed out on an even better joke, perhaps calculating that the Chinese wouldn't get it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Table tennis."
      ],
      "id": "en-whiff-whaff-en-noun-LZAOm-N7",
      "links": [
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          "Table tennis",
          "table tennis"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) Table tennis."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Slazenger"
  ],
  "word": "whiff-whaff"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_text": "Onomatopoeia",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "head_templates": [
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    {
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        {
          "ref": "1922, Stanley John Weyman, The Wild Geese, page 87",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The breathy sound of something rushing quickly; whoosh."
      ],
      "id": "en-whiff-whaff-en-noun-xMQUFJUB",
      "links": [
        [
          "whoosh",
          "whoosh"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100 0 0",
          "word": "whiff whaff"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100 0 0",
          "word": "wiff-waff"
        }
      ]
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  ],
  "word": "whiff-whaff"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 3,
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  "head_templates": [
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          "ref": "1854, Tim Bobbin, Samuel Bamford, The dialect of South Lancashire: or, Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary, page 4",
          "text": "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!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1887, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, A Border Shepherdess: A Romance of Eskdale, page 96",
          "text": "If you dinna lackey my lady you'll be in for a whiff-whaff o' her sharp temper.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1894, Amelia E. Barr, The Flower of Gala Water: A Novel, page 197",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "Nonsense, words or deeds of little import."
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      "id": "en-whiff-whaff-en-noun-2EjSPU5j",
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        "(Lancashire, obsolete) Nonsense, words or deeds of little import."
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        {
          "ref": "1938, Loraine Osborn, Your Voice Personality, page 137",
          "text": "Never, never, wear any kind of a whiff-whaff or a thing-ama-bob on your hat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1975, Jack Newcombe, The best of the athletic boys: the white man's impact on Jim Thorpe",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Unnecessary items or additions."
      ],
      "id": "en-whiff-whaff-en-noun--gMaF4jY",
      "links": [
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      "qualifier": "Lancashire",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Lancashire) Unnecessary items or additions."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
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          "word": "thingy"
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        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
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  "word": "whiff-whaff"
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{
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  "etymology_number": 1,
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          "ref": "[2008 September 2, Chris Irvine, “Boris Johnson in whiff-whaff ping-pong row”, in The Telegraph, retrieved 2020-11-24",
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          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Ben Dirs, Tom Fordyce, Karma Chameleons",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 July 17, Howard Jacobson, “Whiff! Whaff! The beautiful game may be coming home”, in The Independent, retrieved 2020-11-24",
          "text": "\"The French looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner,\" he said. \"We looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to play whiff-whaff.\" In fact table tennis was also called gossima in the early days, and, given that Gossamer is the brand name of a condom, the Mayor of London missed out on an even better joke, perhaps calculating that the Chinese wouldn't get it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "Table tennis."
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        "(archaic) Table tennis."
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      "word": "whiff whaff"
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  "wikipedia": [
    "Slazenger"
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  "word": "whiff-whaff"
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          "ref": "1922, Stanley John Weyman, The Wild Geese, page 87",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
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        "The breathy sound of something rushing quickly; whoosh."
      ],
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          "whoosh"
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    {
      "word": "whiff whaff"
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          "text": "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!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1887, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, A Border Shepherdess: A Romance of Eskdale, page 96",
          "text": "If you dinna lackey my lady you'll be in for a whiff-whaff o' her sharp temper.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1894, Amelia E. Barr, The Flower of Gala Water: A Novel, page 197",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "text": "Never, never, wear any kind of a whiff-whaff or a thing-ama-bob on your hat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1975, Jack Newcombe, The best of the athletic boys: the white man's impact on Jim Thorpe",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
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        "(Lancashire) Unnecessary items or additions."
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "whiff whaff"
    },
    {
      "word": "wiff-waff"
    }
  ],
  "word": "whiff-whaff"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.