variants or less commonly whip smart or whipsmart
: very smart or clever
whip-smart dialogue
But underestimate or patronise Jessica at your peril. She's whip-smart, ultra-ambitious and brutally honest.Kerry Potter
He is also whip smart and tenacious, driven and efficient, typical of the breed so often attracted to academic medical research.Lisa Belkin

Examples of whip-smart in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Trading in her girl-next-door persona, Snow delivered three vastly different performances over the past year, each featuring a whip-smart woman fighting for her own survival. Max Gao, HollywoodReporter, 17 June 2026 Its charm is in its simplicity of concept − Morgan plays a disgraced football star trying to rehab his image with the help of a struggling documentarian (Radcliffe) − and the whip-smart execution of its jokes. Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 17 June 2026 Over the course of three seasons, viewers have come to know Kate (Keri Russell) and Hal (Rufus Sewell) Wyler as a zany, passionate, whip-smart and occasionally toxic couple whose entire romantic history is wrapped up in their high-stakes careers. Katie Campione, Deadline, 14 May 2026 The topical, darkly funny, whip-smart series from Eric Kripke follows a band of vigilante misfits who fight to expose the all-powerful, corrupt conglomerate Vought International and its stable of villainous superheroes. Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2026 See All Example Sentences for whip-smart

Word History

First Known Use

1942, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of whip-smart was in 1942

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Whip-smart.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whip-smart. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.

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