Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To move or cause to move with quick light sweeping motions.
  • intransitive verb To whip (eggs or cream).
  • intransitive verb To move lightly, nimbly, and rapidly.
  • noun A quick light sweeping motion.
  • noun A whiskbroom.
  • noun A small bunch, as of twigs or hair, attached to a handle and used in brushing.
  • noun A kitchen utensil, usually in the form of stiff, thin wire loops attached to a handle, used for whipping foodstuffs.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The game of whist.
  • noun A wisp or small bunch, as of grass, hair, or straw; specifically, such a wisp used as a brush, broom, or besom, and especially in modern usage one made of the ripened panicle of broom-corn (see broom-corn and Sorghum), used for brushing the dust off clothes, etc.
  • noun An instrument used for whisking, agitating, or beating certain articles, such as cream or eggs.
  • noun A coopers' plane for leveling the chimes of casks.
  • noun A neckerchief worn by women in the seventeenth century. Also called falling-whisk, apparently in distinction from the ruff.
  • noun A brief, rapid sweeping motion as of something light; a sudden stroke, whiff, puff, or gale.
  • noun A servant.
  • noun An impertinent follow.
  • To sweepor brush with a light, rapid motion: as, to whisk the dust from a table.
  • To agitate or mix with a light, rapid motion; beat: as, to whisk eggs.
  • To move with a quick, sweeping motion or flourish; move briskly.
  • To flourish about.
  • To carry suddenly and rapidly; whirl.
  • To move with a quick, sweeping motion; move nimbly and swiftly: as, to whisk away.

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

  • noun The act of whisking; a rapid, sweeping motion, as of something light; a sudden motion or quick puff.
  • noun A small bunch of grass, straw, twigs, hair, or the like, used for a brush; hence, a brush or small besom, as of broom corn.
  • noun A small culinary instrument made of wire, or the like, for whisking or beating eggs, cream, etc.
  • noun A kind of cape, forming part of a woman's dress.
  • noun Prov. Eng. An impertinent fellow.
  • noun A plane used by coopers for evening chines.
  • intransitive verb To move nimbly at with velocity; to make a sudden agile movement.
  • transitive verb To sweep, brush, or agitate, with a light, rapid motion
  • transitive verb To move with a quick, sweeping motion.
  • noun obsolete A game at cards; whist.

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

  • noun A quick, light sweeping motion.
  • noun A kitchen utensil, made from stiff wire loops fixed to a handle, used for whipping (or a mechanical device with the same function).
  • noun A bunch of twigs or hair etc, used as a brush.
  • noun A small handheld broom with a small (or no) handle.
  • verb transitive To move something with quick light sweeping motions.
  • verb transitive In cooking, to whip e.g. eggs or cream.
  • verb transitive To move something rapidly and with no warning.
  • verb intransitive To move lightly and nimbly.

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

  • verb brush or wipe off lightly
  • noun a small short-handled broom used to brush clothes
  • verb move somewhere quickly
  • verb move quickly and nimbly
  • verb whip with or as if with a wire whisk
  • noun a mixer incorporating a coil of wires; used for whipping eggs or cream

Etymologies

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

[Middle English wisken, of Scandinavian origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Old Norse visk (compare Danish visk), from Proto-Germanic *wisk- 'move quickly' (compare Old English wiscian 'to plait', granwisc 'awn', Dutch wis 'wisp', German Wisch), from Proto-Indo-European *u̯eis (compare Latin virga 'rod, switch', viscus 'entrails', Lithuanian vizgéti 'to tremble', Czech vechet 'wisp of straw', Sanskrit veşka 'noose').

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Examples

  • How many times can you use the word "whisk" in a very short story?

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  • A balloon whisk is the best tool for this job since the wire strands really do a good job or emulsifying (mixing together) the two ingredients, one oil based, the other water.

    Meathead Goldwyn: Crispy Cornell Chicken: An Upstate New York Classic Meathead Goldwyn 2010

  • A balloon whisk is the best tool for this job since the wire strands really do a good job or emulsifying (mixing together) the two ingredients, one oil based, the other water.

    Meathead Goldwyn: Crispy Cornell Chicken: An Upstate New York Classic Meathead Goldwyn 2010

  • In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the salt until a ribbon forms when the whisk is lifted out of the bowl.

    "Royal Eggs" custard dessert: Huevos reales 2008

  • In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the salt until a ribbon forms when the whisk is lifted out of the bowl.

    "Royal Eggs" custard dessert: Huevos reales 2008

  • The egg foam will be thick and will form a slowly dissolving ribbon falling back onto the bowl of whipped eggs when the whisk is lifted.

    the daring bakers strike again - yule log myriam 2007

  • The egg foam will be thick and will form a slowly dissolving ribbon falling back onto the bowl of whipped eggs when the whisk is lifted.

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  • I believe she supposed I could with a word whisk Jim away out of her very arms; it is my sober conviction she went through agonies of apprehension during my long talks with Jim; through a real and intolerable anguish that might have conceivably driven her into plotting my murder, had the fierceness of her soul been equal to the tremendous situation it had created.

    Lord Jim 1900

  • I believe she supposed I could with a word whisk Jim away out of her very arms; it is my sober conviction she went through agonies of apprehension during my long talks with Jim; through a real and intolerable anguish that might have conceivably driven her into plotting my murder, had the fierceness of her soul been equal to the tremendous situation it had created.

    Lord Jim 1899

  • I believe she supposed I could with a word whisk Jim away out of her very arms; it is my sober conviction she went through agonies of apprehension during my long talks with Jim; through a real and intolerable anguish that might have conceivably driven her into plotting my murder, had the fierceness of her soul been equal to the tremendous situation it had created.

    Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1890

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