shellacking
Americannoun
-
an utter defeat.
a shellacking their team will remember.
-
a sound thrashing.
His father gave him a shellacking for stealing the book.
noun
Etymology
Origin of shellacking
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As the Lions shadowed the first XI's Ashes shellacking, Gay returned scores of 56 not out against the Prime Ministers' XI and 78 against a Cricket Australia XI in Perth.
From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026
The shellacking that big bank stocks have taken as of late could be an ominous sign about what’s next for the economy.
From Barron's • Mar. 18, 2026
That’s because Darnold was standing on the other side of the field, wearing a No. 14 Seahawks jersey and a broad grin, as Seattle unleashed a comprehensive shellacking of his former team.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 1, 2025
And the Dodgers looked anything but rested and refreshed in Friday’s 11-4 shellacking by the Toronto Blue Jays, which left them trailing a postseason series for the first time since last fall’s NLDS.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 25, 2025
He once coxed a Washington crew to a humiliating fifteen-length shellacking of California.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
