whip

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To strike with a strap or rod; lash.
• intransitive verb To afflict, castigate, or reprove severely.
• intransitive verb To strike or affect in a manner similar to whipping or lashing.
• intransitive verb To arouse or excite, especially with words.
• intransitive verb To beat (cream or eggs, for example) into a froth or foam.
• intransitive verb Informal To snatch, pull, or remove in a sudden manner.
• intransitive verb To sew with a loose overcast or overhand stitch.
• intransitive verb To wrap or bind (a rope, for example) with twine to prevent unraveling or fraying.
• intransitive verb Nautical To hoist by means of a rope passing through an overhead pulley.
• intransitive verb Informal To defeat soundly.
• intransitive verb To move in a sudden, quick manner; dart.
• intransitive verb To move in a manner similar to a whip; thrash or snap about.
• noun An instrument, either a flexible rod or a flexible thong or lash attached to a handle, used for driving animals or administering corporal punishment.
• noun A whipping or lashing motion or stroke; a whiplash.
• noun A blow, wound, or cut made by whipping.
• noun Something, such as a long radio antenna on a motor vehicle, that is similar to a whip in form or flexibility.
• noun Sports Flexibility, as in the shaft of a golf club.
• noun Sports A whipper-in.
• noun A member of a legislative body, such as the US Congress or the British Parliament, charged by his or her party with enforcing party discipline and ensuring attendance.
• noun A call issued to party members in a lawmaking body to ensure attendance at a particular time.
• noun A dessert made of sugar and stiffly beaten egg whites or cream, often with fruit or fruit flavoring.
• noun An arm on a windmill.
• noun Nautical A hoist consisting of a single rope passing through an overhead pulley.
• noun A ride in an amusement park, consisting of small cars that move in a rapid, whipping motion along an oval track.
• idiom (whip into shape) To bring to a specified state or condition, vigorously and often forcefully.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun See the extract.
• noun In pianoforte-making, the crosspiece at the top of an action-extension which bears and operates both the hammer-and the damper-action. Also called jack-whip. See the cut under pianoforte.
• noun A light line used in marine life-saving apparatus, run as an endless circuit from the shore around a sheave on the vessel and back to the shore. The breeches-buoy is operated by such a whip.
• noun One who operates a whip-hoisting or whip-conveying line.
• To move suddenly and nimbly; start (in, out, away, etc.) with sudden quickness: as, to whip round the corner and disappear.
• In angling, to cast the line or the fly by means of the rod with a motion like that of using a whip; make a cast.
• To move, throw, put, pull, carry, or the like, with a sudden, quick motion; snatch: usually followed by some preposition or adverb, as away, from, in, into, off, on, out, up, etc.: as, to whip out a sword or a revolver.
• To overlay, as a cord, rope, etc., with a cord, twine, or thread going round and round it; inwrap; seize; serve with twine, thread, or the like wound closely and tightly round and round: generally with about, around, over, etc.
• To lay regularly on; serve in regular circles round and round.
• To sew with an over and over stitch, as two pieces of cloth whose edges are laid or stitched together; overcast: as, to whip a seam.
• To gather by a kind of combination running and overhand stitch: as, to whip a ruffle.
• Nautical, to hoist or purchase by means of a rope passed through a single pulley.
• To strike with a whip or lash, or with anything tough and flexible; lash; use a whip upon: as, to whip a horse.
• To punish with a whip, scourge, birch, or the like; flog: as, to whip a vagrant; to whip a perverse boy.
• To outdo; overcome; beat: as, to whip creation.
• To drive with lashes.
• To lash, in a figurative sense; treat with cutting severity, as with sarcasm or abuse.
• To cause to spin or rotate by lashing with a whip or scourge-stick: said of a top.
• To thrash; beat out, as grain by striking: as, to whip wheat.
• To beat into a froth, as eggs, cream, etc., with a whisk, fork, spoon, or other implement.
• To fish upon with a fly or other bait; draw a fly or other bait along the surface of: as, to whip a stream.