Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To slap on the buttocks with a flat object or with the open hand, as for punishment.
  • intransitive verb To move briskly or spiritedly.
  • noun A slap on the buttocks.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A sounding blow with the open hand or something flat, especially upon the buttocks.
  • To strike with the open hand, or with something flat and hard; slap with force on the buttocks.
  • To urge by slapping or striking; impel forcibly; drive; produce some specified effect upon by spanking or slapping.
  • To pound, beat, or slap the water in sailing, as a boat.
  • To move with a quick springing step between a trot and a gallop; move quickly and with spirit. See spanking.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To move with a quick, lively step between a trot and gallop; to move quickly.
  • noun A blow with the open hand; a slap.
  • transitive verb To strike, as the breech, with the open hand; to slap.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To beat, smack or slap a person's buttocks, with the bare hand or other object, as punishment, gesture or form of sexual interaction.
  • verb transitive To soundly defeat, to trounce.
  • verb intransitive To move rapidly.
  • noun An instance of spanking, separately or part of a multiple blows-beating; a smack, swat or slap.
  • noun A slapping sound, as produced by spanking.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb give a spanking to; subject to a spanking
  • noun a slap with the flat of the hand

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably imitative.

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Examples

  • I find that when you are a good behavior manager in general, the need to spank is minimal.

    Sticks And Stones | Her Bad Mother 2009

  • He is just as bad and stuck in the authoritarian rut because he doesn't get more creative in his methodology than to advocate (strongly as in blah-blah-blah, the Bible commands you spank, which is not true,) draconian parenting.

    adventures in mercy 2009

  • (I don't like to say "spank" - it's hitting, beating.

    Women's Space 2008

  • And they "spank" with nightsticks, tasers and guns.

    LIVE Blog: Chat with us during the show 2010

  • It will be necessary to "spank" the Palin/Beck/Limbaugh/Drudge forces back into the submission of reason.

    Matthew Anderson: Third Party, Party 2010

  • Peyton Manning will then 'spank' Drew Brees: Now if they just made half-and-half jerseys...

    Sad Week Molly Daniels 2010

  • It will be necessary to "spank" the Palin/Beck/Limbaugh/Drudge forces back into the submission of reason.

    Matthew Anderson: Third Party, Party 2010

  • But there's a deeply ingrained part of my mind and my libido that inevitably gets turned on when I hear the word "spank," that starts to conjure erotic images and stories.

    Boing Boing 2008

  • Let's REMOVE the word "spank" from our vocabulary.

    Is spanking counterproductive? 2010

  • Use our Spineless Citations to "spank" the political wimps who aided them by voting for the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment.

    Bill Moyer: Nuclear Free Zone Offers A Path to Peace 2008

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