Hi,
Just stumbled across this sentence:
Those thugs pulled the brother out of his car, they pushed him down on the ground, they hit him some, they threw him against the car. They were wailing on the brother.
I couldn’t find any meaning of “to wail” that would fit the context. What could “to wail” mean here?
Thanks
Hi,
I guess it means: to beat up someone, in such a way that the person in question would not even get the chance to defend themselves/to react
i.e. very quick punches, kicks
I’d never heard it, and the only place I could find a reference to it is the Urban Dictionary, so for the second time this weekend I have to admit that they’ve come up trumps:
To beat up someone using a flurry of punches and kicks thrown quickly one after another and landing so fast that the victim has no time to avoid or block any of them.
“To wail on somebody” is a very common expression meaning to beat someone very hard with very fast punches and kicks and, as mentioned above, it may be so fast that the victim has no chance to block the punches or defend himself.
Usually “wail” means to make loud crying noises, but in this case it means to beat someone. It has been so common for so many decades that I can’t imagine why it’s not in more dictionaries.
Thanks everybody!
It’s very strange that this meaning hasn’t made it into most reputed dictionaries, such as thefreedictionary.com/wail
Maybe because it’s not as common as Jamie’s experiences make him believe. I’ve asked a number of people - no one knew this use of the phrase.
Perhaps it’s only common in certain parts of the US.
The problem here is that the slang meaning of “to whale on a person” (meaning to beat on) is often misspelled as “wail”. It has been in use much longer than a few decades. Any American would know exactly what is meant when hearing the term.
Aha! I found a link:
thank you Expatcat, I was interested in this topic and the link you mentioned was useful.
That also explains why no one I asked (in the UK) understood it.
Hello, Bev
I’m just curious. Did you ask only people who hail from the UK, or also people who hail from the USA?
air clash, Tort! 
I think you’ll find I’ve answered.
And so you have! A split second after I posted my question!
What a coincidence! =)
Heh… it’s even stranger than that. On my version of the forum, you posted the question seconds after I posted the answer to it.
My bad, I should’ve written “before”, not after. You caught me out =)
I’m not my usual self due to this godawful heat that has settled in here, and for a long stay by the looks of it .