Ahab
Americannoun
-
Bible. a king of Israel and husband of Jezebel, reigned 874?–853? b.c. null Achab
-
Literature. the captain of the ship Pequod and tragic hero of Melville's Moby Dick, obsessed with the pursuit of the white whale.
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Etymology
Origin of Ahab
From Hebrew Aḥʾābh, probably “father's brother”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ahab’s crew, Ishmael says, “seemed to be picked and packed specifically by some infernal fatality to help him to his monomaniacal revenge.”
From New York Times
“It’s not an Ahab thing — it’s not his white whale, and I don’t think he deals in that kind of neurosis,” Ganz said.
From New York Times
“Ahab” blends analytical integrity and data visualization with goofball humor and an overall sense of pleasure.
From New York Times
Devotion to such a deadly sport is not always relatable, and in that sense, he can be read as someone cut from a similar cloth as Capt. Ahab.
From Los Angeles Times
It's the championship of each other, and they're two men on an ice floe, and to each the other is Ahab's white whale.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
