wham
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /wæm/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (without the wine–whine merger) IPA(key): /hwæm/
- Rhymes: -æm
Noun
[edit]wham (plural whams)
- a forceful blow
- Roger was given a violent wham by his boxing opponent.
- the sound of such a blow; a thud
- We heard a wham as the hammer struck the wall.
Interjection
[edit]wham
- The sound of a forceful blow.
- Wham! The truck hit the wall.
- 1950 July 22, Ferguson Findley, “Waterfront”, in Louis Ruppel, editor, Collier's: Incorporating Features of the American Magazine, Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, page 16:
- I was off duty, minding my own business, […] when I heard a gun go off. Wham! it roared, not more than twenty feet from me, and then, in quick succession, wham—wham!
- Used to indicate something sudden, unanticipated, and dramatic has occurred.
- Our relationship was going smoothly and then wham! Out of nowhere he told me he was leaving me for another woman.
- 1952 September 22, “Since Stevenson Prefers 'Compromise', Foreign Policy Is Squarely in the Campaign”, in LIFE, volume 33, number 12, Time Inc., →ISSN, page 30:
- Wham! Overnight he [Dwight D. Eisenhower] became a warmonger.
- 2008 August, Douglas Coupland, “40 on the Outside, 30 on the Inside: My theory of how men really age”, in Best Life, volume 5, number 6, Rodale, Inc., →ISSN, page 77:
- I'll look the exact same way for a decade, and then— wham!— God hits the progeria switch and for two years the downhill plunge begins anew.
Translations
[edit]sound of a forceful blow
Verb
[edit]wham (third-person singular simple present whams, present participle whamming, simple past and past participle whammed)
- To strike or smash (into) something with great force or impact.
- 1994 October, Harry Hay, “Focussing On NAMBLA Obscures The Issues”, in Gay Community News, page 16:
- My Wobblie worker buddies taught me to wham anybody who bothered me hard and fast in the crotch with my knee or my elbow.
Related terms
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Pronoun
[edit]wham
- Alternative form of whom (“who, whom”, accusative)
Scots
[edit]Pronoun
[edit]wham
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led.
- Scots, whom Bruce has often led.
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/æm
- Rhymes:English/æm/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English interjections
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- English verbs
- English onomatopoeias
- en:Sounds
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- Middle English pronouns
- Scots lemmas
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- Scots terms with usage examples