👋 A beating 🔝 Very large

whacking

7.7

Very large in size or amount

adjective
/ˈwækɪŋ/

: enorme

And so you can write down the proof of Fermat's Last theorem as one whacking great number.

It consumes a metric whack ton of power.

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Examples

He won a whacking great prize at the competition, far exceeding everyone's expectations.
She made a whacking big mistake by missing the important meeting this morning.
PJM is on the same order of magnitude as all of whack, so some of these are really huge operations.
It helps me out a whole whack load of a ton.
It consumes a metric whack ton of power.

Linus Tech Tips
The storm left behind a whacking mess, with debris scattered all over the street.

Synonyms

whopping

vswhacking

Informal

1 5.0

Very large in size or amount

is chiefly British in informal usage rather than general use

walloping

vswhacking

Informal

6.3

Very large in size or amount

is chiefly British in informal usage rather than general use

whooping

vswhacking

Informal

4.9

Very large and impressive in size or amount

is neutral about largeness rather than praising it

Antonyms

small

∞ 1.0

Not large in size or amount

insignificant

104 4.1

Not important or too small to matter

How Big

whacking

7.7

huge

∞ 1.0

large

∞ 1.0

small

2 1.1

tiny

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

whacking positive

Morphology

whacking = whack (semi-transparent) = whack + ing

The transformation from 'whack' to 'whacking' involves a shift from a verb meaning to strike to an informal adjective/adverb meaning extremely large or great.

Etymology

Whacking comes from the verb whack, which means 'to hit'. Imagine a hit so big it becomes 'huge' — that strong image is why whacking is used to mean 'very large' or 'extreme'.