"very like a whale" meaning in All languages combined

See very like a whale on Wiktionary

Adjective [English]

Etymology: From an exchange between Hamlet and Polonius (discussing the shape of a cloud) in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} very like a whale (not comparable)
  1. (slang, humorous) Highly improbable; not to be believed. Tags: humorous, not-comparable, slang
    Sense id: en-very_like_a_whale-en-adj-TalOeRpn Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "etymology_text": "From an exchange between Hamlet and Polonius (discussing the shape of a cloud) in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "very like a whale (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1859, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, page 541:",
          "text": "'On your way to dine with Sir William Ayr, indeed! Very like a whale that, captain, but not quite so large, you understand!' the sergeant said jeeringly.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Highly improbable; not to be believed."
      ],
      "id": "en-very_like_a_whale-en-adj-TalOeRpn",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "improbable",
          "improbable"
        ],
        [
          "believe",
          "believe"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, humorous) Highly improbable; not to be believed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "very like a whale"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From an exchange between Hamlet and Polonius (discussing the shape of a cloud) in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "very like a whale (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English humorous terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English slang",
        "English terms first attested in Shakespeare",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncomparable adjectives",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1859, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, page 541:",
          "text": "'On your way to dine with Sir William Ayr, indeed! Very like a whale that, captain, but not quite so large, you understand!' the sergeant said jeeringly.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Highly improbable; not to be believed."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "improbable",
          "improbable"
        ],
        [
          "believe",
          "believe"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, humorous) Highly improbable; not to be believed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "very like a whale"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-31 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (bcd5c38 and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.