Join free

shellacking

English

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

shellacking¹

Where it comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

verb

  1. gerund, participle, present present participle and gerund of shellac

shellacking²

Where it comes from

From shellac + -ing. Shellac is used in floor polish; compare polishing, as in "the other boxer in the match polished the floor with me; I took quite a polishing".

noun shellackings

  1. countable, uncountable The act or process of coating with shellac.
  2. US, countable, informal, uncountable A heavy defeat, drubbing, or beating; used particularly in sports and political contexts. The News baseball team defeated the Press-Guardian outfit, 8 to 4, in a recent game, which squares accounts for the shellacking the News received a year ago.

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"shellacking." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shellacking. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

shellacking. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shellacking

Chicago

"shellacking." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shellacking.

BibTeX
@misc{shellacking_2026,
  title = {shellacking},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shellacking},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}