Whip-smart
//ˈʍɪpˌsmɑːt// adj, slang
adj, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Very intelligent. Canada, US, informal
"Seeing them here in town, smart in American-style uniforms, Peru's Army looks extremely well-trained, whip-smart."
Example
More examples"Seeing them here in town, smart in American-style uniforms, Peru's Army looks extremely well-trained, whip-smart."
Etymology
Inversion of earlier smart as a whip (compare rock solid, from solid as a rock; snow-white, from white as snow; etc.). Possibly an allusion to how quickly the tip of a whip moves when the whip is cracked.
More for "whip-smart"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.