whangdoodle

plural whangdoodles · alternative whang-doodle

1. humorousoftenA whimsical monster in folklore and children's fiction; a bugbear.

   "I'm n-n-not a tor-tor-tortoise," stuttered the curious creature, "I'm a wha-wha-whang-whang-doodle." "A whangdoodle! What's that?"

   1901, Charles M. Snyder, Runaway Robinson, page 53

   3 more examples

   Bob gave the man fair warning. Told him if he ever prowled around his home again he'd better come a–fogging; the man took a chance and now he's where the woodbine twineth and the whangdoodle mourneth for its mate.

   1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter II, in The Understanding Heart

   In the Big Rock Candy Mountains lies a happy hobo land where the boxcars are all empty, where there are cigaret trees and rock-and-rye springs and the whangdoodle sings.

   1960 August 22, “Yarns and Whoppers and Practical Jokes”, in Life, 49 (8): 56

   “That wood [the Forest of Sin]” his [Little Billy's] mother said, “is full of the most blood-thirsty wild beasts in the world.” / “You mean tigers and lions?” Little Billy asked. / “Much worse than that,” his mother said. / “What's worse than tigers and lions, Mummy?” / “Whangdoodles are worse,” his mother said, “and Hornswogglers and Snozzwanglers and Vermicious Knids. And worst of all is the Terrible Bloodsuckling Toothpluckling Stonechuckling Spittler. There's one of them there, too.”

   1991, Roald Dahl, The Minpins, Viking Penguin, →ISBN, page 7

   Synonyms: bogeyman, bugbear, gremlin

2. obsoleteA term of disparagement.

   "Now, Ben, you're a lawyer. You don't give a whang-doodle about anything mechanical."

   1928 (Mar.), Martin Bunn, "When You Buy a Car", Popular Science 112 (3): 138

   2 more examples

   For a man who can listen for an hour to Mr. White, the whining, nasal, Whangdoodle preacher, and then sit down and write, without shedding melancholy from his pen as water slides from a duck's back, is more than mortal.

   1862, Mark Twain, Mark Twain's letters: 1853-1866, Volume 1 (published 1987), page 171

   […]and I want you to conflumux everything got up by Mrs. Davis or Miss Lane, or any other of these political whangdoodles.

   1867, John Ballou Newbrough, The fall of Fort Sumter, or, Love and war in 1860-61, page 131

3. card gamesA ruling in which the opening stake limits are doubled for the next play after the appearance of a very good hand.

   It is sometimes agreed in advance that after a hand of certain rank, such as Four of a Kind or a Full House, is shown, a Whangdoodle or Jackpot must be played[…]

   1940, Clement Wood, Gloria Goddard, The Complete Book of Games, page 296