English Explanatory Dictionary

whale

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any large cetacean that usually excludes dolphins and porpoises.
  2. Any species of Cetacea.
  3. Something, or someone, that is very large.
  4. Something, or someone, that is excellent.
  5. A gambler who routinely wagers large amounts of money.
  6. An investor who deals with very large amounts of money.
  7. A person who spends large amounts of money on things that are marketed to them.
  8. An overweight person (usually a woman)
verb
  1. To hunt for whales.
verb
  1. To thrash, to flog, to beat vigorously or soundly.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A hamlet in Lowther parish, Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England, previously in Eden district (OS grid ref NY5221).

Pronunciation

wāl /weɪl/ en-us-whale.ogg hwāl /ʍel/ /ʍeɪl/

Word forms

whale whales whaling whaled

Etymology

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”)).

Synonyms

whale baleen cetacean high roller

Related words

narwhal rorqual walrus baleen cachalot cete gam orca pod

Derived words

Arctic whale baleen whale beached whale beaked whale belly of the whale beluga whale black whale blue whale bone whale bottlenose whale bowhead whale Bryde's whale caaing whale ca'ing whale desert whale Eden's whale fail whale false killer whale finback whale fin whale flue whale gray whale grey whale great whale Greenland whale have a whale of a time humpback whale ice whale Jupiter whale killer whale land whale melon-headed whale minke whale narwhale narwhal Omura's whale piked whale pike whale pilot whale polar whale pollack whale pothead whale pygmy right whale razorback whale Rice's whale right whale dolphin right whale Russian whale scrag whale sei whale social whale spade-toothed whale sperm whale spermaceti whale steeple-top whale sulfur-bottom whale sulphur whale thick as a whale omelette thrasher whale thresher whale
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