wack

¹ American  

[wak] / wæk /

Also whack

noun

1. an odd, irrational, or unconventional person; wacko.

2. a thing or things that are unsatisfactory, worthless, or of low quality.

   The show is mostly a lot of wack, with a couple of funny moments.

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adjective

1. extremely bad or inferior.

   The song is great, but the video is really wack.

2. odd, irrational, or unconventional; wacky.

   I’m afraid the neighbors think we’re wack!

3. extremely good.

   The guys scarfed down those wack cookies you made, and they're asking for more.

wack ² American  

[wak] / wæk /

verb (used with or without object)

1. whack.

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wack British  

/ wæk, ˈwækə /

noun

1. dialect friend; pal: used chiefly as a term of address

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Etymology

Origin of wack

First recorded in 1935–40; perhaps back formation from wacky; popularized in 1986 from the anti-crack mural by the U.S. pop artist Keith Haring (1958–90), which bore the slogan “Crack is wack”

Example Sentences

A veteran of Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, Chris Wack writes and edits for Newswires' real-time desk, while contributing the odd article to WSJ.com and The Wall Street Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal

The band are drip-feeding fans remixes of songs from their breakthrough mixtape, Full Wack No Breaks.

From BBC

Cross-species communication plays a part in “The Experiment,” “Zip Zap Wickety Wack” and “If We Were Dogs.”

From The Wall Street Journal

The partnership makes a little more sense when you put it in the context of promoting a contest called “Hack Is Wack,” which asked creators to submit two-minute rap videos on cybersecurity threats — think hacking, identity-theft viruses and the like.

From Los Angeles Times

Ernest Dukes, who represents Babyface, shared a clip of the gaffe on his Instagram story, writing “bring back professionalism” and calling the AP reporters’ behavior “beyond wack” and “beyond disrespectful.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• character
• identity
• personality