Dictionary

able whackets en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Possibly from able, as in able seaman, and whack.

Meanings

1. (historical, plural, plural-only, slang) Blows on the hand from a knotted or twisted handkerchief, especially given as a punishment to the loser of certain card games.
   • Instead of the usual sailors' games of cards and ablewhackets, there was the clicking of dice, with games of parcheesi unfolding on chequerboards of rope […]. 2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 15:
   • The chief amusement or game in use in the midshipmen's berth, was ‘able whackets’, a pastime in which cards, blasphemy, and hard knocks were agreeably mingled. 1905, John Masefield, Sea Life in Nelson's Time, section IV:

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