whale

¹ American  

[weyl, hweyl] / weɪl, ʰweɪl /

noun

• whales,
  plural
• whale
  plural

1. any of the larger marine mammals of the order Cetacea, especially as distinguished from the smaller dolphins and porpoises, having a fishlike body, forelimbs modified into flippers, and a head that is horizontally flattened.

2. Informal. something big, great, or fine of its kind.

   I had a whale of a time in Europe.

   Programming this game turned out to be a whale of a project.

3. Also called crypto whale.  an investor who holds a large amount of cryptocurrency and is therefore able to create noticeable effects on the market, as by influencing prices through large transactions or by reducing the amount of available cryptocurrency through failure to move their holdings.

   The recent accumulation of this cryptocurrency by whales may indicate that they expect it to see significant gains in the near future.

4. Astronomy. Whale, the constellation Cetus.

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verb (used without object)

whaled, whaling

1. to engage in whaling or whale fishing.

2. Digital Technology. to phish by posing as a company’s attorney, CEO, vendor, or other authorized entity in order to scam a payroll department, corporate executive, etc., out of money or confidential information.

   When she demonstrated her project, “How to Whale and Make Millions,” they didn’t know whether to award her or arrest her!

verb (used with object)

whaled, whaling

1. Digital Technology. to make (a company’s employee or department) a phishing victim by posing as an entity authorized to procure money or confidential information from the company.

   Before proving he had been whaled, the marketing VP was subjected to much scrutiny and suspicion.

whale ² American  

[hweyl, weyl] / ʰweɪl, weɪl /

verb

whaled, whaling

1. to hit, thrash, or beat soundly.

   Back then, if we misbehaved, Dad would threaten to whale us.

   We took advantage of the other team where they were weakest and whaled the stuffing out of them.

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verb phrase

1. whale (away) at / on

   1. to work vigorously and continuously at or on.

      It was cool to see this bunch of talented writers whaling away on their screenplay.

      I remember whaling at code over and over, pretty much at random, until I found something that sort of worked.

   2. to strike with furious and repeated blows.

      Satisfying as it was to whale on the punching bag, it did little to restore my emotional balance.

      In the last round, he pinned his opponent in the corner and was whaling away at him with both hands.

   3. to criticize vehemently.

      When hostile people are whaling on your ideas, it’s easy to feel humiliated and angry.

      Now all the political pundits are whaling away at the president for neglecting the military.

   4. to play (an instrument) with abandon.

      There was a jazz musician in the corner of the bar, whaling away at the piano.

      He and his band whaled on their instruments with their whole bodies—it was amazing!

whale ¹ British  

/ weɪl /

noun

1. any of the larger cetacean mammals, excluding dolphins, porpoises, and narwhals. They have flippers, a streamlined body, and a horizontally flattened tail and breathe through a blowhole on the top of the head

2. any cetacean mammal See also toothed whale whalebone whale

3. slang a gambler who has the capacity to win and lose large sums of money in a casino

4. informal an exceptionally large, fine, etc, example of a (person or thing)

   we had a whale of a time on holiday

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whale ² British  

/ weɪl /

verb

1. (tr) to beat or thrash soundly

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• whale
  plural
• whales
  plural

Etymology

Origin of whale¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English hwæl; cognate with German Wal- in Walfisch, Old Norse hvalr; akin to Latin squalus, a kind of fish; 2005–10 whale ¹ for defs. 6, 7 (from the consideration of the victim as a “big fish/phish”)

Origin of whale²

First recorded in 1780–90; origin uncertain

Explanation

A whale is a large mammal that lives in the ocean. Whales need to breathe air periodically, and the blowholes on their heads help them do this. Blue whales are the largest animals that ever lived — they're even bigger than the largest dinosaurs were! The Old English root of whale means both "whale" and "walrus," although these two marine animals are quite different from each other. While some whales grow to be only ten feet long, many whales are enormous. The informal phrase "a whale of a" comes from the idea that whales are impressive, and you can use it for things (or people) that really distinguish themselves: "Wow, this is a whale of a party!"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

whale whales whaled whaling

A whale shark was spotted between Malibu and Santa Barbara Island earlier this month.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

Sbarounis estimated the whale shark that he photographed Wednesday, thanks to his friend Ryder DeVoe, was between 14 and 16 feet long.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026

The head of a whale, believed to date back to the Bronze Age, has been discovered buried on a beach in Islandmagee.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

More than two million tourists travel to the islands each year—drawn by the clear waters where they can observe marine life like turtles, manta rays and whale sharks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

All around was just blue sparkling sea, the sound of whale song, and the splash of dolphins.

From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook

"If you start looking at long-lived species like elephants, whales and bats, you start finding ways that nature has actually already resolved a lot of these problems in human health," Vazquez added.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026

In a study published in Science Advances on Wednesday, researchers equipped six of the toothed whales, sometimes called "unicorns of the sea," with satellite transmitters, and had them explore remote East Greenland waters.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

The three new arrivals will join SeaWorld San Diego’s other belugas, a roster that includes three other whales transported there from Marineland.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

An estimated 4,000 humpback whales, 6,000 fin whales and 6,000 minke whales visited the Greenland Sea in the summer of 2024.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

“She did. If I hadn’t been panicking so much, I’d have remembered that blue whales aren’t physically able to swallow anything close to my size.”

From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook

Numbers of these 16-foot-long marine mammals, hunted for their oil, meat, and baleen, had fallen to an estimated low of 1,200 animals in the North Pacific—a heavily whaled region—by the 1960s.

From National Geographic ● Sep. 28, 2023

Today’s blue whales find themselves in a whaled and warming ocean.

From Scientific American ● Jul. 31, 2020

Facing Erin's 7,800-plus yards but massively wide fairways—60 yards in some cases—players whaled away with impunity when typical winds failed to blow.

From Golf Digest ● Jun. 4, 2018

At one, Chadwick Boseman whaled on the drums and Lupita N’yongo was hailed as the best dancer.

From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2018

By his tellin', ther fust Alexander whaled blazes outen all creation an' then sot down an' cried like a baby because ther job he'd done went an' petered out on him.

From A Pagan of the Hills by Charles Neville Buck

Once it became clear that the survivors of the Mentor were American, the Ngarchelongese agreed to help them get home by building them a canoe to supplement their whaling boat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

Reports of sperm whales using their heads to strike objects date back to open-boat whaling in the 19th century.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 23, 2026

The Browns had a hand in everything from ironmaking and rum distilling to whaling and the slave trade.

From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026

California’s gray whales have been considered an environmental success story since the passage of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act and 1986’s global ban on commercial whaling.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026

Back at the whaling station, Shackleton was busy organizing a ship to set out for Elephant Island.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

Related Words

• mammal
• porpoise