Definitions

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

  • noun Something exceptionally big or remarkable.
  • noun A gross untruth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who whops.
  • noun Anything uncommonly large: applied particularly to a monstrous lie.

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

  • noun One who, or that which, whops.
  • noun something very large, especially a big lie. Same as Whapper, but the more common spelling.

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

  • noun something remarkably large
  • noun an outrageous lie

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

  • noun something especially big or impressive of its kind
  • noun a gross untruth; a blatant lie

Etymologies

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

[From whopping.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

whop +‎ -er

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Examples

  • But the rather liberal "Washington Post," this week defended me, and found that Senator Obama had issued what it calls a whopper when referring to me in his third attack on me on the issue of illegal immigration.

    CNN Transcript Jun 7, 2008 2008

  • But the rather liberal "Washington Post," this week defended me, and found that Senator Obama had issued what it calls a whopper when referring to me in his third attack on me on the issue of illegal immigration.

    CNN Transcript Jun 8, 2008 2008

  • As the young woman rattled on she grew more and more glib; she was what they call whopper-jawed, and spoke a language almost purely consonantal, cutting and clipping her words with a rapid play of her whopper-jaw till there was nothing but the bare bones left of them.

    The Minister's Charge William Dean Howells 1878

  • The real whopper is when McCain calls for easing "regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital."

    McCain flounders, reads teleprompter on big economic speech 2008

  • The real whopper is when McCain calls for easing "regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital."

    McCain flounders, reads teleprompter on big economic speech 2008

  • Behavior that was memorialized by Somerby in this quote: CARLSON: I actually happen to know people who need government and so they would care more about the programs, and less about the things we kind of make fun of … But as sport, and as our enterprise, Gore coming up with another whopper is greatly entertaining to us.

    For Whom The Bell Dingells - Swampland - TIME.com 2008

  • And, the big whopper is that the new provisions are RETROACTIVE to the DATE OF ENACTMENT of FISA, which is 1978, or well before Bush assumed office.

    Think Progress » ThinkFast PM: June 14, 2006 2006

  • - Tom DeLayThe one truth about that whopper is that it won't be his last.

    January 2006 2006

  • The best chance at a true whopper is to slowly still-hunt up the stream, stopping and glassing large pools and small open areas among the lush old-growth forest.

    Dream Hunts 2003

  • The whopper is the House Republican plan to adopt a budget balancing amendment to the Constitution.

    Jeff Madrick: The 10 Worst Economic Ideas of 2011 Jeff Madrick 2011

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