blubber
Americannoun
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Zoology. the fat layer between the skin and muscle of whales and other cetaceans, from which oil is made.
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excess body fat.
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an act of weeping noisily and without restraint.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
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to say, especially incoherently, while weeping.
The child seemed to be blubbering something about a lost ring.
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to contort or disfigure (the features) with weeping.
adjective
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disfigured with blubbering; blubbery.
She dried her blubber eyes.
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fatty; swollen; puffed out (usually used in combination).
thick, blubber lips; blubber-faced.
verb
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to sob without restraint
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to utter while sobbing
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(tr) to make (the face) wet and swollen or disfigured by crying
noun
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a thick insulating layer of fatty tissue below the skin of aquatic mammals such as the whale: used by man as a source of oil
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informal excessive and flabby body fat
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the act or an instance of weeping without restraint
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an informal name for jellyfish
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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blubbersimple
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blubberssimple
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have blubberedperfect
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has blubberedperfect
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am blubberingprogressive
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are blubberingprogressive
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is blubberingprogressive
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have been blubberingperfect progressive
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has been blubberingperfect progressive
Past
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blubberedsimple
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had blubberedperfect
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was blubberingprogressive
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were blubberingprogressive
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had been blubberingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blubber
1250–1300; Middle English bluber bubble, bubbling water, entrails, whale oil; apparently imitative
Explanation
Blubber is the thick layer of fat that keeps whales and other large swimming mammals warm in the cold water. Inuits and other northern people have traditionally relied on eating blubber. Based on marine animal blubber, some people describe human fat as blubber too — often in a derogatory way. When blubber is a verb, it means to sob uncontrollably: "The little girl sat down and started to blubber after skinning her knee." Blubber was originally spelled blober, meaning "a bubble" or "bubbling water," which led to the "crying" meaning of the word. In the 15th century, it also meant "jellyfish" and "whale oil."
Vocabulary lists containing blubber
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
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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.
And yet now whales that were once hunted for their oil are falling victim to the effects of the petroleum or “rock oil” that replaced their melted blubber as a source of light and lubrication.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2026
The country is one of only three in the world that still allow whaling - where whales are hunted for their meat, blubber and oil - along with Japan and Norway.
From BBC • Dec. 5, 2024
The daughter of a disgraced house, Valya isn’t content to accept her family’s banishment to a life peddling whale fur and blubber.
From Salon • Nov. 17, 2024
They swim slowly and near shore, have thick blubber and float when killed, according to Jessica Crance, a research biologist with the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
From Seattle Times • May 27, 2024
He said the scent came from dissecting sharks and whales, from cutting away layers of blubber and plunging her hands inside the cavities of marine creatures that were twenty times her size.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
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.
