thwack
Americanverb (used with object)
-
thwacks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
thwacked,
past participle, past
-
thwacking
present participle
noun
verb
noun
interjection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
thwacksimple
-
thwackssimple
-
have thwackedperfect
-
has thwackedperfect
-
am thwackingprogressive
-
are thwackingprogressive
-
is thwackingprogressive
-
have been thwackingperfect progressive
-
has been thwackingperfect progressive
Past
-
thwackedsimple
-
had thwackedperfect
-
was thwackingprogressive
-
were thwackingprogressive
-
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
Only then can he thwack the ball toward his opponent.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2024
Over the lapping of the waves, and the thwack thwack of paddle games on the beach, a sound cuts through - a sudden deep boom.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2024
“She taught to the thwack of the hickory sprout,” Preacher Parr remembered.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
At last week’s class, high-fives and hair-styling tips were generously distributed between thwacks of tennis balls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Manly Mando thwacks and snicks his way through all opponents while scarcely breaking a sweat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
“Becoming,” for trumpet and electronics, asks Wooley to exercise his extended-technique chops — sometimes pristine, sometimes gravelly, generally whisper-quiet — in sections that pass without adornment, between ritualistic gong thwacks.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2021
Two thwacks of the cleaver and he’s cut the duck in half.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 24, 2021
After putting on running tights, a long-sleeve T-shirt, gloves, and a hoodie, she crossed the hall to Brooklyn’s room and gave the door three hard thwacks with the bottom of her fist.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
“The shucked abalone is trimmed, butterflied, and thwacked lightly with a mallet.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Fans all over the world can track every shot of every player — including balls thwacked on the driving range.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025
When Neil Wagner tried to bounce him, Brook cleared the front leg and thwacked the ball away, baseball-style.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2023
He fidgeted in his chair as he listened to the senators opine, and thwacked his microphone to ensure it was working just before he starting reading his opening statement.
From New York Times ● Oct. 20, 2021
He thwacked it against a bed to test its strength.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
“To be real with you, some of my early stuff wasn’t the most authentic,” she says as her drummer starts thwacking a snare during sound check .
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2026
It was a beautiful trail, and the woods soon filled with the steady sound of boots on dirt, poles thwacking rocks and heavy breathing.
From Seattle Times ● May 20, 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
The sound of two sneaker soles thwacking a drum fill on the ground as Stubbs tried to regain his balance.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2022
It landed with a crash and started thwacking about with such thunder that I was afraid it would demolish the boat.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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.
