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A sudden turn or start of the mind; a temporary eccentricity; a freak; a fancy; a capricious notion; a humor; a caprice. Let every man enjoy his whim. Churchill.

To take or move by a sudden motion; to jerk; to snatch; -- with into, out, up, off, and the like. She, in a hurry, whips up her darling under her arm. L'Estrange. He whips out his pocketbook every moment, and writes descriptions of everything he sees. Walpole.

The act of whisking; a rapid, sweeping motion, as of something light; a sudden motion or quick puff. This first sad whisk Takes off thy dukedom; thou art but an earl. J. Fletcher.

under Softening. -- White spruce. (Bot.) See Spruce, n., 1. -- White squall (Naut.), a sudden gust of wind, or furious blow, which comes up without being marked in its approach otherwise than by whitecaps, or white, broken water, on the surface of the sea. -- White staff, the badge of the lord high treasurer of Eng…

for which; that on account of which; on what account; as, I know not why he left town so suddenly; -- used as a compound relative.

A violent and peremptory procedure without any assigned reason; a sudden conclusive happening. [Obs.] When the church Was taken with a why-not in the lurch. Hudibras. This game . . . was like to have been lost with a why-not. Nugæ Antiq.

The sudden compression of the air caused by a projectile in passing close to another body.

a portion of a forest prostrated by a violent wind, etc. "They became a windfall upon the sudden." Bacon.

ments of flexion and extension of the wrist, produced in some cases of nervous disease by suddenly bending the hand back upon the forearm. -- Wrist drop (Med.), paralysis of the extensor muscles of the hand, affecting the hand so that when an attempt is made to hold it out in line with the forearm with the palm down,…

To throw or thrust with a sudden, smart movement; to kick or strike suddenly; to jerk. Their wounded steeds . . . Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters. Shak.

To sing in a manner common among the Swiss and Tyrolese mountaineers, by suddenly changing from the head voice, or falsetto, to the chest voice, and the contrary; to warble.