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Whale

//weɪl// name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun

1
A surname.
2
A hamlet in Lowther parish, Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England, previously in Eden district (OS grid ref NY5221).

Noun

1
Any one of numerous large marine mammals comprising an informal group within infraorder Cetacea that usually excludes dolphins and porpoises.
"And God created great whales, and euery liuing creature that moueth, which the waters brought forth aboundantly after their kinde, and euery winged foule after his kinde: and God saw that it was good."
2
any of the larger cetacean mammals having a streamlined body and breathing through a blowhole on the head wordnet
3
Any species of Cetacea. broadly
"The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber."
4
a very large person; impressive in size or qualities wordnet
5
Something, or someone, that is very large. figuratively
"It was a whale of a job. […] It took two months, and the fair blush of youth off my cheeks."

Show 5 more definitions

6
Something, or someone, that is excellent. figuratively
"My own father only wrote one poem in his life as far as I know, but it was a whale of a lyric, the kind you would give your whole life to write, which he did, but that is another story."
7
A gambler who routinely wagers large amounts of money. figuratively
"These are often no-limit games as maximum bets cramp a whale’s style."
8
An investor who deals with very large amounts of money. figuratively, informal
"If the banks knew how big Archegos’s position was, they may have realized other banks were supplying it with the same leverage — and reconsidered the trade. But a set of worrisome regulatory loopholes kept them from detecting this lurking whale."
9
A person who spends large amounts of money on things that are marketed to them. figuratively
"Whales are the big spenders who drop huge amounts of money into a game."
10
An overweight person (usually a woman) colloquial, derogatory, figuratively
"The whale is still snoring. He's a real beauty, the whale. Got this thick curly hair all over his chest and stomach and legs."

Verb

1
To hunt for whales. intransitive
2
To thrash, to flog, to beat vigorously or soundly. slang, transitive
"Brought him back, put him in the stall—low stable—got out of his reach, and then begun to whale him. Then he kicked up agin; […]"
3
hunt for whales wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos Proto-Germanic *hwalaz Proto-West Germanic *hwal Old English hwæl Middle English whal English whale From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara, “kind of fish”)).

Etymology 2

Etymology 3

Uncertain. Perhaps a variant of wale influenced by whack, whap, etc.

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