As in, “to [WORD] upon someone.” Which is correct?
Well, wail is almost certainly wrong.
Is it whale?
One high-ranking site says yes.
One informal meaning of “whale” is “to beat.” Huck Finn says of Pap that “He used to always whale me when he was sober.”
Although the vocalist in a band may wail a song, the drummer whales on the drums; and lead guitarists when they thrash their instruments wildly whale on them.
Although this usage dates back to the 18th century and used to be common in Britain and America, it is now confined mostly to the U.S., and even there people often mistakenly use “wail” for this meaning.
But wait — wale also seems possible.
wale (wāl)
n. A mark raised on the skin, as by a whip; a weal or welt.
v. waled, wal·ing, wales To raise marks on the skin, as by whipping.
whale2 [hweyl, weyl]
–verb, whaled, whal?ing, to hit, thrash, or beat soundly.
Origin:1780–90; orig. uncert.
to wale (third-person singular simple present wales, present participle waling, simple past and past participle waled)
- To strike the skin in such a way as to produce a wale.
- 1832: Owen Felltham, Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political
- Would suffer his lazy rider to bestride his patie: back, with his hands and whip to wale his flesh, and with his heels to dig into his hungry bowels?
- 2002: Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century
- When faced with an adulthood that offered few options, grinding poverty and marriage to a man who drank too much and came home to wale on his own family or…no beatings.
- 1832: Owen Felltham, Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political
Hmmmm. Anyone else want to weigh in?
whale (v.)“beat, whip severely,” 1790, possibly a variant of wale (v.).Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper