whisk
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to move with a rapid, sweeping stroke.
She whisked everything off the table with her arm.
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to sweep (dust, crumbs, etc., or a surface) with a whisk broom, brush, or the like.
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to draw, snatch, carry, etc., lightly and rapidly.
He whisked the money into his pocket.
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to whip (eggs, cream, etc.) to a froth with a whisk or beating instrument.
verb (used without object)
noun
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an act of whisking.
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a rapid, sweeping stroke; light, rapid movement.
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a small bunch of grass, straw, hair, or the like, especially for use in brushing.
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an implement, usually a bunch of wire loops held together in a handle, for beating or whipping eggs, cream, etc.
verb
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(tr; often foll by away or off) to brush, sweep, or wipe off lightly
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(tr) to move, carry, etc, with a light or rapid sweeping motion
the taxi whisked us to the airport
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(intr) to move, go, etc, quickly and nimbly
to whisk downstairs for a drink
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(tr) to whip (eggs, cream, etc) to a froth
noun
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the act of whisking
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a light rapid sweeping movement or stroke
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a utensil, often incorporating a coil of wires, for whipping eggs, etc
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a small brush or broom
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a small bunch or bundle, as of grass, straw, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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whisksimple
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whiskssimple
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have whiskedperfect
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has whiskedperfect
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am whiskingprogressive
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are whiskingprogressive
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is whiskingprogressive
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have been whiskingperfect progressive
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has been whiskingperfect progressive
Past
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whiskedsimple
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had whiskedperfect
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was whiskingprogressive
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were whiskingprogressive
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had been whiskingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of whisk
1325–75; (noun) Middle English ( Scots ) wysk rapid sweeping movement; (v.) earlier Scots wisk, quhisk < Scandinavian; compare Old Norse, Norwegian visk wisp, Swedish viska besom, wisp, to whisk (off ), Danish viske to wipe (compare Old High German wisken to wipe, wisc wisp of hay); for development of wh cf. whip
Explanation
When you whisk something, you stir it quickly and lightly with a kitchen tool also called a whisk. Grab that whisk and whisk those eggs! Most whisks have long handles and curved wire loops, a design that makes it easy to beat air into ingredients as you whisk them. Before the metal whisk was invented in the mid-19th century, cooks used bundles of twigs to whisk batters. You can also use whisk to mean "move quickly," so you might say, "Her parents managed to whisk her off to school before she was truly awake."
Vocabulary lists containing whisk
Pestle, Sieve, and Whisk: Useful Words for Cooking Tools
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A Good Kind of Trouble
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This Week in Pop Culture: May 18–24, 2019
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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:
Thirty-one days can whisk by in a flash.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
At the train station in Van, couples and families with children arrived in taxis and unloaded their suitcases before boarding the 9 p.m. train that would whisk them overnight to Tehran.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Heels click on cracked paving stones as fantastically long-limbed men and women practice moves they hope will whisk them away from South Sudan, one of the fashion world's favourite scouting locations.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
In April, the court twice ruled — including in a post-midnight order — that the Trump administration could not secretly whisk immigrants out of the country without giving them a hearing before a judge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2026
Next to her, Gale ran up and down the railing, passing gas; but the strong wind off the Adriatic helped whisk it away.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
Addison Rae is a student of pop, and Headphones On is her master thesis – a hymn to music that whisks you away from the world for three minutes of distracted, hypnotic solace.
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025
Linklater, shooting en français with subtitles, whisks characters past the lens so fast that your mental Rolodex is full in 15 minutes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2025
That night, the team whisks Doncic to Las Vegas for a Backstreet Boys concert, where somebody ’grams a photo from backstage and again the internet explodes: Dang, look at Luka.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2025
I’m trapped in an endless cycle of whisks, cafes, cheesecakes, cookies, cloud foams, and flavored lattes.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2025
The other whisks the tarp off the boat’s stern.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
For instance, Eatrenalin at Germany’s Europa-Park, a dining room-meets-ride where participants are whisked around the space on trackless “floating chairs,” has just received a coveted Michelin star.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Later, when Bond is whisked to Vietnam, the orchestra swells with suave panache, immersing you in the action before 007 has even uttered a quip.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
A spoonful whisked into a skirt steak stew can make it taste as though it simmered well past dinnertime.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
Three evacuees were whisked away from the ship on Wednesday when it anchored off Cape Verde and a fourth landed on Thursday in Amsterdam, said the vessel's operator, Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions.
From Barron's ● May 7, 2026
He perked upright to watch for her approach but instead found himself whisked into the bright haze of a Recollection.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Since then, a more tightly controlled entry through an augmented passageway at the terrace level has become a routine part of whisking the president inside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
It was there that they finally caught him, shooting him with a tranquilliser gun before whisking him back to the zoo.
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026
The script is way more confident when Gunn gets to scribble in the margins, whisking in Milly Alcock’s party-hardy Supergirl for a fast and fun cameo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2025
He described to me his benevolent curiosity, watching hours of raw video from the scene and discovering what he believes were signs of staging—injured men getting up, ambulances whisking away seemingly unharmed people.
From Slate ● May 30, 2025
A red priestess scurried past, attended by a dozen acolytes with torches, their robes whisking about their ankles.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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.
