thwack
Americanverb (used with object)
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thwacks,
present (3rd person singular)
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thwacked,
past participle, past
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thwacking
present participle
noun
verb
noun
interjection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
thwacksimple
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thwackssimple
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have thwackedperfect
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has thwackedperfect
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am thwackingprogressive
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are thwackingprogressive
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is thwackingprogressive
-
have been thwackingperfect progressive
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has been thwackingperfect progressive
Past
-
thwackedsimple
-
had thwackedperfect
-
was thwackingprogressive
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were thwackingprogressive
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had been thwackingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of thwack
First recorded in 1520–30; imitative
Vocabulary lists containing thwack
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.
See Examples For:
The following “RV Envy” adds the thwack of a full drum kit to the mix, and the staticky howl of the hurdy-gurdy is as hectic as a smashed window triggering a building’s alarm system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
Dahlia Lithwick: I think what Judge Burroughs did was quite remarkable—she took a thwack at Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh in the opinion itself.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2025
Forget the huge thwack of decisive national victory.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2025
Combine sand and gunpowder and thwack, you’ve made a brick of TNT.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
And then came the familiar rattle of the typewriter keys being struck, the thwack of the carriage return being hit.
From "Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures" by Kate DiCamillo
Manly Mando thwacks and snicks his way through all opponents while scarcely breaking a sweat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
It opens with a D flat in the low strings, winds and brass, a tenebrous and flatly final sound incapable of being dislodged by the thwacks and thumps surrounding it.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2023
Two thwacks of the cleaver and he’s cut the duck in half.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 24, 2021
What do those four thwacks call to mind?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2021
It thwacks into my open glove, falls to the ground, and three of their runners score.
From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins
“The shucked abalone is trimmed, butterflied, and thwacked lightly with a mallet.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
The boys loved it, even if daddy thwacked his head following them through a crawl space.
From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2023
When Neil Wagner tried to bounce him, Brook cleared the front leg and thwacked the ball away, baseball-style.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2023
Seemingly everything he threw, the Rockies touched or tipped or simply thwacked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2022
He thwacked it against a bed to test its strength.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
Once, the frenetic thwacking of flippers was the peak of manic childhood glee.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2023
In the U.S. alone, somewhere between several hundred million and one billion birds die every year after thwacking into windows, many of them beckoned by interior lights.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 1, 2022
Mosquitoes swarmed while mouse-sized dragonflies bombarded the hunters with thwacking, thumping thuds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2022
Elsewhere we hear knives thwacking against cutting boards, pans rattling across stoves, onions sizzling in pans and the ticking of the clock that signals the start of service.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 6, 2022
Once voices came very close, and the search party went thwacking through the cornfield.
From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare
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.
