English edit

Etymology edit

From whipper +‎ in.

Noun edit

whipper-in (plural whipper-ins or whippers-in)

  1. (hunting) A huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering, and whips them in, if necessary, to the chase.
    • 1860 January – 1861 April, Anthony Trollope, chapter IV, in Framley Parsonage. [] (Collection of British Authors; 551), copyright edition, volume I, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published April 1861, →OCLC:
      [] I shall take to hunting a pack of hounds myself after this.”
      “Do, my dear, and I'll be your whipper-in. I wonder whether Mrs. Proudie would join us.”
    • 1871, George MacDonald, chapter X, in The Vicar's Daughter[1]:
      The other servant was an old man, who had been whipper-in to a baronet in the next county, and knew as much of the ways of wild animals as Burton did of those of his horses; []
    • 1894, Thomas Hardy, “Andrey Satchel and the Parson and Clerk”, in Life’s Little Ironies [], London: Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., [], →OCLC:
      Now the clerk [] saw the hunting man pass, and presently saw lots more of ’em, noblemen and gentry, and then he saw the hounds, the huntsman, Jim Treadhedge, the whipper-in, and I don’t know who besides.
  2. (politics) One who enforces the discipline of a party, and urges the attendance and support of the members on all necessary occasions.
    Synonym: whip