wallop

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Related to walloped: swathe

a nasty wallop

A severe and powerful blow, which may be either dealt or received. I got a really nasty wallop from a two-by-four on the construction site last week. His left hook can deal a nasty wallop if he catches you with it. The captain of the football team threatened to give me a nasty wallop if he caught me flirting with his girlfriend again.

crash bang wallop

An interjection used for emphasis, especially to indicate loud noises. I was falling asleep on the couch when that framed photo fell off the wall and shattered, crash bang wallop!

pack a punch

1. To be able to punch powerfully. For such a scrawny kid, George sure can pack a punch—even the older kids are afraid of him!

2. By extension, to have a powerful effect or impact. I don't like spicy food, so I hope this salsa doesn't pack a punch.

See also: pack, punch

pack a wallop

1. To be able to punch very powerfully. For such a scrawny kid, George sure can pack a wallop—even the older kids are afraid of him!

2. By extension, to have a powerful effect or impact. I don't like spicy food, so I hope this salsa doesn't pack a wallop.

pack a wallop

and pack a punch

Fig. to provide a burst of energy, power, or excitement. Wow, this spicy food really packs a wallop. I put a special kind of gasoline in my car because I thought it would pack a punch. It didn't.

pack a punch

Also, pack a wallop.

1. Be capable of a forceful blow; also, deliver a forceful blow. For example, Knowing Bob could pack a wicked punch, they were careful not to anger him, or She swung her handbag, really packing a wallop. [Colloquial; c. 1920]

2. Have a powerful effect, as in That vodka martini packed a wallop. Thomas Wolfe had this figurative usage in a letter (c. 1938): "I think my play, The House, will pack a punch."

See also: pack, punch

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

pack a punch

INFORMAL

COMMON If something packs a punch, it has a very powerful effect. He is known for designing clothes that really pack a punch. The advert packs a punch with its straightforward, real, no-tricks approach. Note: People also sometimes say that something packs a wallop. Many years after it was made, this movie still packs a wallop.

See also: pack, punch

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

pack a punch

1 be capable of hitting with skill or force. 2 have a powerful effect.

See also: pack, punch

ˌpack a (hard, etc.) ˈpunch

(informal)
1 be able to hit very hard: He’s a boxer who packs a nasty punch!
2 have a powerful effect on somebody: Their latest advertising campaign packs a hard punch. ♢ Don’t drink too much of his home-made beer — it packs quite a punch!

See also: pack, punch

wallop

(ˈwɑləp)

1. n. a hard blow. She planted a hard wallop on his right shoulder.

2. tv. to strike someone or something hard. The door swung open and walloped me in the back.

3. n. influence; pull; clout. I don’t have enough wallop to make that kind of demand.

pack a wallop/punch, to

To exert formidable power. In modern English to wallop means to thrash, and in noun form, a heavy blow, but originally the verb meant to boil with a noisy, bubbling sound, and the noun also was slang for ale. Glyndebourne, site of a summer opera festival in England, perpetuates the last meaning in the name of its restaurant, Nether Wallop (Lower Ale). The verb pack in this expression means “to deliver.” The term dates from the early twentieth century. Eugene O’Neill used it literally in his play The Hairy Ape (1922): “He packa da wallop, I tella you.” Figuratively it appears in such locutions as, “The candidate’s speech really packed a punch.”