Whaler
name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 One who hunts whales; a person employed in the whaling industry.
"For a whaler's wife to have been “ 'round the Cape” half a dozen times, or even more, was nothing extraordinary."
- 2 a ship engaged in whale fishing wordnet
- 3 A seagoing vessel used for hunting whales.
"But o' Thursday t' Resolution, first whaler back this season, came in port."
- 4 a seaman who works on a ship that hunts whales wordnet
- 5 One who whales (flogs or beats).
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 A large, strong person. slang
- 7 Something of unusually great size, a whopper, a whacker. slang
- 8 Any shark of the family Carcharhinidae; a requiem shark. Australia
"The whalers (or requiem sharks) are one of the largest and best known family of sharks. Worldwide there are 48 species in 12 genera. However, relatively few species are on the Great Barrier Reef."
- 9 A sundowner; one who cruises about. Australia, dated, slang
"the nomad, “the whaler,” it is who will find the new order hostile to his vested interest of doing nothing."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"For a whaler's wife to have been “ 'round the Cape” half a dozen times, or even more, was nothing extraordinary."
Etymology
From whale + -er. In sense 1, displaced Old English hwælhunta (literally “whale hunter”).
Variant of Wheeler.
Related phrases
More for "whaler"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.