whale

Noun

Noun

×

A word that identifies a person, place, thing, or idea.

Plural

whales

Verb

Verb

×

A word that expresses an action, state, or occurrence.

present (v1)

whale

past (v2)

whaled

past participle (v3)

whaled

present participle

whaling

3rd person singular

whales

Noun

Noun

×

A word that identifies a person, place, thing, or idea.

1. 1.Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of 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. 2.Any species of Cetacea.

3. 3.Something, or someone, that is very large.

   • It was a whale of a job. […] It took two months, and the fair blush of youth off my cheeks.
   • But when it comes to his business life and business career, Will Clayton is not as other men; he is such a whale of a lot better that it suggests a qualitative as well as a quantitative difference.

4. 4.Something, or someone, that is excellent.

   • They were having a whale of a time when a very stern looking shop assistant came over to tell them off.
   • Busley Crowther in The New York Times called it “a whale of a comedy” even though he couldn't tell the four musicians apart except for Ringo (“the big-nosed one”).

Verb

Verb

×

A word that expresses an action, state, or occurrence.

1. 1.To thrash, to flog, to beat vigorously or soundly.(slang)

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:whale.
   • They beat him down and kept whaling him after he was flat.

2. 2.To hunt for whales.

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Synonyms

• giant