noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   a serious or devastating setback
2. 2
   an evil spell wordnet
3. 3
   an evil spell; a curse or hex
4. 4
   a serious or devastating setback wordnet
5. 5
   The vibrato system of an electric guitar, or just its lever (whammy bar) colloquial

Synonyms

All synonyms

hexamuletanathemabad bloodbad influencebad temper

Example

More examples

"Women even earn less so there is a double whammy for them."

Etymology

From wham + -y.

Related phrases

double whammytriple whammywhammy bar

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.