whipsaw

whipsaw

informal

1. verb To subject (someone or something) to two very difficult or intense and often opposite forces, either simultaneously or in quick succession. The country's economy was whipsawed by the largest drop in the history of the stock market, followed almost immediately by tremendous gains after the announcement of the stimulus package by the president.

2. verb To go back and forth between two states, positions, conditions, etc. The narrative whipsaws between two protagonists who occupy the same physical space but are separated in time by exactly 100 years.

3. poker, verb Of two players, to collude in raising and re-raising the bet in order to force a middle player to continue calling. The two poker sharks started whipsawing the newcomer, pushing him to bet all he had brought with him.

4. noun A situation that oscillates dramatically between extreme positions, as in the stock market. The explosive news from world leaders has sent global markets into a whipsaw, plunging and rallying and plunging again as traders scrambled to gain control of their investments.

5. poker, noun A situation in which two players collude in raising and re-raising the bet in order to force a middle player to continue calling. It looked like Thompson was about to be caught in a whipsaw, but he managed to fold his hand before the other two players began their raises.

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

whipsaw

1. tv. to assault a person; to gang up and beat a person. What kind of creeps would whipsaw an old buzzard like that?

2. tv. [for the stock market] to reduce the capital of investors by frightening them into selling when stock prices are low and encouraging them to buy when prices are high. (Securities markets.) A lot of people were whipsawed in the recent market volatility.

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.