wale on

A form of whale on — To strike an opponent heavily and repeatedly in a fight.

Meanings

verbwale on (third-person singular simple present wales on, present participle waling on, simple past and past participle waled on)

present singular third person wales on · participle present waling on · participle past waled on · past waled on

  1. alternativeslangAlternative form of whale on.

    She tears into him, fists waling on him like paddle wheels.

    1999, Linda M. Bullard, Shades of Justice, page 131
    2 more examples

    "One of my coke babies had retinal damage and seizures and to me that is just as severe as somebody waling on a kid," she says.

    1990 August 19, Jan Hoffman, “Pregnant, Addicted - and Guilty?”, in The New York Times Magazine

    I figured that if he was there, I would let him wale on me as a sort of punishment, wale on me just for a few seconds before I started my action and hit back.

    1997, Gary Soto, Buried Onions, page 43

Origin

See wale (“mark with welts”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

wale on. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wale%20on

MLA

“wale on.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wale%20on. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wale on,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wale%20on.

Source: wale on on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.