fair crack of the whip

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Interjection

fair crack of the whip

1. (Australia, colloquial, informal) Fair go, fair suck of the sauce bottle; used as an appeal for reasonableness.
   • 2007 July 19, john smith, “Dumb Referee”, in aus.sport.rugby-league‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Like you mean the non interference of the officials with the knockon from Soward and not called and the knockon from Chase which eventuated in a try to the Dragons not called, fair crack of the whip mate, see both sides of the coin, not the one you want to see.

   • 2011, Peter McAra, The Vintner's Letters, unnumbered page:

     ‘Fair crack of the whip, mate. We′ve had bacon and eggs for a week.’ He coughed noisily. ‘And you expect a man to jump out of bed for bacon and bloody eggs.’
     ‘What would sir prefer? Soufflé au Parmesan? Or a swift kick up the backside?’

   • 2011, Michael Lawriwsky, Hard Jacka: The Story of a Gallipoli Legend, unnumbered page:

     “Now, straighten up!” The men shuffled into position.
     “Come on, sir!” pleaded one of them.
     “Fair crack of the whip mate”, Nugget said.

Noun

fair crack of the whip (plural fair cracks of the whip)

1. (UK, colloquial, informal) An equitable opportunity to achieve something; a fair go.
   • 1927 March 7, “Mr. J. H. Thomas And Trade Unions”, in The Times, London, England, page 16:

     We believe it is our duty to help these people, because we don't think they are getting a fair crack of the whip.

   • 1993, William Trethowan, interviewed, in Greg Wilkinson (editor) Talking About Psychiatry, page 43,

     I never thought the Department of Psychiatry had a fair crack of the whip during my time in Birmingham. I was promised facilities, a new unit for psychiatry, none of which came to pass.

   • 2001, Terry Hodgson, The Plays of Tom Stoppard: For Stage, Radio, TV and Film‎^[2], page 86:

     Yet style for Stoppard is not, as he feels it was for Oscar Wilde, the means and the end: ‘I′m not a writer who doesn′t care what things mean ... but despite myself I am a kind of writer who doesn′t give a fair crack of the whip to that meaning’ (Delaney, p.99).

   • 2010, House of Lords, The British Film and Television Industries: Decline Or Opportunity? 1st Report of Session 2009-10, Volume II: Evidence, page 91,

     Lord Inglewood: Then you intimated that you felt that your members were not getting a fair crack of the whip. Is that right?

     Mr McVay: I think that previously we do not think that we were getting a fair crack of the whip. I think we have every chance now to exploit our content.

Synonyms

• fair go
• fair shake of the sauce bottle
• fair suck of the sav