whale Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a very large person; impressive in size or qualities
    giant; heavyweight; hulk.
  2. noun any of the larger cetacean mammals having a streamlined body and breathing through a blowhole on the head
  3. verb hunt for whales

WordNet

Whale noun
Etymology
OE. whal, AS. hwæl; akin to D. walvisch, G. wal, walfisch, OHG. wal, Icel. hvalr, Dan. & Sw. hval, hvalfisk. Cf. Narwhal, Walrus.
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) Any aquatic mammal of the order Cetacea, especially any one of the large species, some of which become nearly one hundred feet long. Whales are hunted chiefly for their oil and baleen, or whalebone. since the 1920's and the replacement of whale oil by petroleum products and electricity, whales have been hunted primarily for their meat. Due to dramatic decreases in the whale population, the International Whaling Commission was formed to regulate the hunt, so as to avoid extinction of the endangered species. In the 1990's, only a few countries continued to hunt whales in significant numbers. ✍ The existing whales are divided into two groups: the toothed whales (Odontocete), including those that have teeth, as the cachalot, or sperm whale (see Sperm whale); and the baleen, or whalebone, whales (Mysticete), comprising those that are destitute of teeth, but have plates of baleen hanging from the upper jaw, as the right whales. The most important species of whalebone whales are the bowhead, or Greenland, whale (see Illust. of Right whale), the Biscay whale, the Antarctic whale, the gray whale (see under Gray), the humpback, the finback, and the rorqual.

Webster 1913