whale

en-verb

whale (third-person singular simple present whales, present participle whaling, simple past and past participle whaled)

whales (present singular third-person)
whaling (participle present)
whaled (participle past)
whaled (past)

Uncertain. Perhaps a variant of wale influenced by whack, whap, etc.

Brought him back, put him in the stall—low stable—got out of his reach, and then begun to whale him. Then he kicked up agin; […]

1852, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Why Mr Sellum disposed of the horse (chapter XIV in Works, volume 22)

"I wouldn't let him. When you were a boy in your part of the country, and other boys told tales about you, what did you do with them?" "Whaled 'em like time, Captin'," answered the man; "and if ye'll only shet yer eyes to 't, I'll whale him." "I can't allow such things in the prison," said the Captain; "and besides, the fellow will be lame for a fortnight, and wouldn't be a match for you in that condition. Let him get limber, and then, if you don't whale him, I'll make you walk the ladder for a month." The result was, the conscript officer received a sound thrashing; and did not commit another act worthy of punishment for a week.

1865 May, “Three Days at Camp Douglass”, in Our Young Folks: An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls, volume I, number V, page 296:

They beat him down and kept whaling him after he was flat.

2004, Steve Frazee, Voices in the Hill, →ISBN:

For quotations using this term, see Citations:whale.

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


whaler

without the wine–whine merger, non-rhotic

Composed of whale + -er. In sense 1, displaced Old English hwælhunta (literally “whale hunter”).

ncog

For a whaler's wife to have been “ 'round the Cape” half a dozen times, or even more, was nothing extraordinary.

1890, Century Illustrated Magazine, XL, 511:

Whalers have always overexploited their stocks, driving them to commercial extinction.[…]American whalers, operating at first from the coast and later in sea-going boats, took about 200 000 right whales in addition to humpbacks and grays.

1986 June 5, Jeremy Cherfas, “What price whales?”, in New Scientist, page 36:

The whalers brought a new way of life. They brought a chance for travel. Many Chamorros traveled to London and the United States. Over eight hundred Chamorro whalers settled in Honolulu.

2001, Lawrence J. Cunningham, Janice J. Beaty, A History of Guam, page 170:

One who hunts whales; a person employed in the whaling industry.


harpoon

From Old French harpon, from Latin harpaga, a rare variant of Latin harpagō, from Ancient Greek ἁρπάγη (harpágē, “hook”), from ἁρπάζω (harpázō, “to snatch away, to carry off, to seize, to captivate”). Sense and spelling perhaps influenced by Dutch harpoen (“harpoon”). Doublet of harpagon.

A spearlike weapon with a barbed head used in hunting whales and large fish.

A sharp tip within a disposable syringe, used to penetrate the stopper.


harpoon

en-verb

harpoon (third-person singular simple present harpoons, present participle harpooning, simple past and past participle harpooned)

harpoons (present singular third-person)
harpooning (participle present)
harpooned (participle past)
harpooned (past)

Pilot whales, also known as blackfish, were fairly plentiful, and Mundus would harpoon one or two, haul them out onto the beach, and butcher them.

1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 176:

(transitive) To shoot something with a harpoon.


scrimshaw

scrimshaw (third-person singular simple present scrimshaws, present participle scrimshawing, simple past and past participle scrimshawed)

scrimshaws (present singular third-person)
scrimshawing (participle present)
scrimshawed (participle past)
scrimshawed (past)

The origin of the verb is unknown, but it has possibly been influenced by the surname Scrimshaw. Various etymologies have been proposed (for example, that it derives from scrimshank (“(Britain, military slang) to be idle, to shirk duty”)), but the Oxford English Dictionary does not consider any of them convincing.
The noun is probably derived from the verb.

ref

From the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

To create (a small ornamental handicraft also called a scrimshaw) by carving or engraving on bone (originally whalebone or whales' teeth), ivory, or other materials.


scrimshaw

en-noun

scrimshaw (countable and uncountable, plural scrimshaws)

term-label

(originally US, nautical, also attributively)

Rooney got his skull exposed, doggone it
Soon he's gonna get scrimshaw carved on it

2008, Neil Cicierega (lyrics and music), “Modify”, in View-Monster, performed by Lemon Demon:

(countable) A small ornamental handicraft created by carving or engraving bone (originally whalebone or whales' teeth), ivory, or other materials, formerly produced by sailors on whaling ships to pass the time on long voyages.

(uncountable) The manufacture of small ornamental handicrafts by carving or engraving bone, ivory, or other materials, formerly by sailors on whaling ships to pass the time on long voyages.


whaleboat

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Before we had gone fifty yards we perceived that all hopes of getting further up the stream in the whale-boat were at an end, for not two hundred yards above where we had stopped were a succession of shallows and mudbanks, with not six inches of water over them.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

A long narrow rowing boat, formerly used in whaling, which is pointed at both ends so that it can move either forwards or backwards equally well.


flense

en-verb

flense (third-person singular simple present flenses, present participle flensing, simple past and past participle flensed)

flenses (present singular third-person)
flensing (participle present)
flensed (participle past)
flensed (past)

From Danish flense (now spelled flænse).

In this domain right sex is capital, it flenses the feelings of all the poisonous artifices brought in by the think-box in the guise of clever ideas.

1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 198:

His eyes sprang open. Umegat stared straight at him for the fraction of a second, and Cazaril felt flensed.

2001, Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion, →ISBN, page 191:

For that reason, among others, he would never evince the particular guantness, the cut and flagrant sense of purpose - all compromise and capacity for surrender flensed away - which had made Thomas Covenant ir-refusable to her.

2004, Stephen R. Donaldson, The Runes of the Earth, →ISBN, page 5:

It engulfed screaming soldiers who disappeared before his eyes, their flesh, armor, even bone, flensed into a suspended mist that was heading straight for them.

2008, Ian C. Esselemont, Return of the Crimson Guard, →ISBN, page 569:

The Lemakot in the north strangled widows and threw them into the cremation pyres of their dead husbands. If they defeated potential invaders the New Irish hanged the vanquished from banyan trees, flensed their windpipes, removed their heads, left their intestines to jerk in the sun.

2011, Dominic Smith, Bright and Distant Shores, page 106:

To strip the blubber or skin from, as from a whale, seal, etc.


harpooner

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A person who uses a harpoon, especially to hunt whales


whale oil

en-noun

whale oil (countable and uncountable, plural whale oils)

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Any of various oils and fats extracted from the blubber of whales and used in the manufacture of soap and lubricants (formerly as an illuminating oil).


spermaceti

From Latin sperma (“sperm”) + Latin cētī (“of the whale”, genitive of cētus).

af

genitive of <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">cētus</i>

Moreover, as that of Heidelburgh was always replenished with the most excellent of the wines of the Rhenish valleys, so the tun of the whale contains by far the most precious of all his oily vintages; namely, the highly-prized spermaceti, in its absolutely pure, limpid, and odoriferous state.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 77, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

A wax obtained from the head of sperm whales and used to make cosmetics, etc.


cetyl alcohol

(organic chemistry) The waxy aliphatic primary alcohol 1-hexadecanol, used in cosmetics etc.


muktuk

en-noun

muktuk (usually uncountable, plural muktuks)

From Inuktitut (Inuvialuktun) ᒪᖅᑕᖅ (maqtaq) and Inupiaq maktak (“whaleskin with attached blubber”).

uder

"Nathan, my baby!" Martha said. "Come get your muktuk! This my Cousin Clara, Clara Stone."

The two species of whale from which muktuk is most often sliced are the bowhead and the beluga, or white whale.

2006, Nancy Gates, The Alaska Almanac: Facts about Alaska, page 130:

The skin and blubber of a whale, traditionally used as food by the Inuit.


antiwhaling

en-adj

antiwhaling (comparative more antiwhaling, superlative most antiwhaling)

more antiwhaling (comparative)
most antiwhaling (superlative)

The antiwhaling protest was a success.

Against the practice of whaling (hunting of whales).


whaleburger

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...today when "whaleburger steak" was served at a luncheon of the Institute of Refrigeration. It was part of an experimental consignment of ten tons...

1945, American Polar Society, The Polar Times:

The meat alone was enough to make 800000 "whaleburger" sandwiches. The men also took vitamin oil from the whale's liver.

1963, Paul Andrew Witty, How to Improve Your Reading:

...a blubber-packed whaleburger on a sesame seed bun instead of a flame-broiled burger. Sound unhealthy? Maybe not.

1999, Gale Maleskey, James McCommons, Nature's Medicines:


whaleman

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flenser

From Danish flense or Dutch vlensen, perhaps from Proto-Germanic *flintaz-, from Proto-Indo-European *splind- (“to split, cleave”), from *(s)plei- (“to split”)..

der

One who flenses (cuts blubber from a whale carcass)


prowhaling

en-adj

prowhaling (comparative more prowhaling, superlative most prowhaling)

more prowhaling (comparative)
most prowhaling (superlative)


whalemeat

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troak

en-verb

troak (third-person singular simple present troaks, present participle troaking, simple past and past participle troaked)

troaks (present singular third-person)
troaking (participle present)
troaked (participle past)
troaked (past)

What's this for cash your tapster troaks, / That colics and affronts the fowks?

1812, William Rankin, “A Friendly Hint to a Porter Brewer”, in Poems, on Different Subjects, Archibald Allardice, page 97:

She'll not loose the letters that come to her by the King's post, and she must go on troking wi' the old carrier, as if there was no post-house in the neighbourhood.

1823, Walter Scott, Saint Ronan's Well, page 119:

The trade of Greenland is a strict monopoly of the Danish Government, and accordingly the Government puts a check upon any trading or fishing within a certain distance of the coast. It does not, however, prohibit the sale of small articles not used in their trade being sold, and accordingly, in addition to obtaining news of the ice and such-like other lore, here commences a curious traffic with the natives, well-known, to the Scottish whalers at least, under the name of "troaking" or bartering.

1873 May 20, Robert Brown, “A Cruise with the Whalers in Baffin's Bay”, in Ocean Highways: The Geographical Record, volume 1, number II, N. Trübner and Co., page 51:

(Scotland) To barter or trade, especially outside a government monopoly.

قايض

exchange goods or services without involving money


train oil

en-noun

train oil (countable and uncountable, plural train oils)

From train (“train oil”) + oil, partial calque of Dutch traanolie (“whale oil”). See further etymology at train.

partial calque

Oil obtained from the blubber of marine mammals, especially whale oil.


sperm oil

en-noun

sperm oil (countable and uncountable, plural sperm oils)

Whale oil that is extracted from a sperm whale.


whaleship

For many years past the whaleship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and least known parts of the earth. She has explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart, where no Cook or Vancouver had ever sailed.


whaling station

whaling station (plural whaling stations)

A dock in which the carcasses of hunted whales are processed, and where whale hunters sometimes live.


Nantucket sleigh ride

Nantucket sleigh ride (plural Nantucket sleigh rides)

If we can fasten a good fish tomorrow when you are with us," said the captain of the New Bedford whaling bark Morning Star to me, "I will try to give you a Nantucket sleigh ride."

1905 December 31, A. B. Hawser, “My Nantucket sleigh ride”, in Boston Globe, retrieved 2013-08-22, page SM10:

[The] crew pushed out in a small boat and pierced the whale with a harpoon attached to a rope secured to the boat. Then it was hang on for your life. “A whale barreling along at the surface would take the men on the proverbial Nantucket sleigh ride, a bone-jarring, terrifying and, at times, no doubt exhilarating trip over the waves,” Dolin writes.

2007 July 29, Bruce Barcott, “In the Shadow of Moby-Dick”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-08-22:

(idiomatic) An instance of the dragging of a whaleboat across the surface of a body of water by a harpooned whale.


whalebird

From whale + bird, because they have been known to follow whaling vessels to feed on the blubber and floating oil.


trywork

From try (“to extract oil from whale blubber”) + work.

affix

(nautical) A furnace on a ship used to heat try pots.


try pot

From try (“to extract oil from whale blubber”) + pot.

Along Salamanca Wharf […] was a reminder of what first made the early colony of Tasmania: a large black whaler's trypot, used to boil stripped whale blubber so as to produce oil.

2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 183:

(nautical) A large pot used to remove and render the oil from blubber obtained from cetaceans, pinnipeds and also to extract oil from penguins.

taraipāta

large pot used to remove and render the oil from blubber and to extract oil from penguins


factory ship

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(nautical) a vessel, usually part of a fleet, which processes catches of fish or whales while at sea


Grytviken

(historical) A station in South Georgia. An abandoned whaling station on South Georgia


harpoon gun

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(nautical) A small gun, on a whaler, that fires harpoons


boatsteerer

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(dated, nautical) The person, in a whaleboat, who manned the forward oar and whose task was to harpoon whales


whalesman

The old whalesman was not long aboard before getting confirmed in his conjecture that the ship was the same whose boats had harpooned and “drogued” the cachalot', the carcass of which had been encountered by the Catamaran.

1865, Mayne Reid, The Ocean Waifs: A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea, page 363:

Take heed young whalesmen and listen to my word.

2011, Frank Rogers, The God of Shattered Glass, page 224:

That's the distinction your heroic whalesman made about us fishermen, just because he thought the whale's brain enlightened the world while we brayed like asses about the hard life we led. So I say a whalesman is to a fisherman as a gold-digger is to a quarryman.


chimney's afire

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Success would show itself as a geyser of crimson blood gushing from the whale’s blowhole, which caused whalemen to cry out, ‘Chimney’s afire!’

2015 December 20, Nathaniel Philbrick, “How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World”, in Smithsonian Magazine:

(nautical) A phrase shouted when blood gushes out of a whale's blowhole after a killing blow is struck with a lance


whale line

The involuntary consternation of the moment caused him to leap, paddle in hand, out of the boat; and in such a way, that part of the slack whale line coming against his chest, he breasted it overboard with him, so as to become entangled in it, when at last plumping into the water.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Castaway”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

A thick rope connecting a harpoon to the line tub