[ˈwami], (Noun)

Definitions:
- an event with a powerful and unpleasant effect; a blow
(e.g: the third whammy was the degradation of the financial system)

- an evil or unlucky influence
(e.g: I've come to put the whammy on them)


Phrases:

Origin:
1940s: from the noun wham + -y; associated from the 1950s with the cartoon strip Li'l Abner, in which the hillbilly Evil-Eye Fleegle could ‘shoot a whammy’ (to put a curse on somebody) by pointing a finger with one eye open, and a ‘double whammy’ with both eyes open