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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Instead of "Said": Words For Sad Speech
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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.
See Examples For:
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
On the business end, there is a 3cm metal tip that plucks a piece of skin and blubber from the whale’s body.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 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
These currently unmonitored chemicals were also present in the blubber of dolphin carcasses that had washed ashore, as well as in the sediment collected near the known dumping area.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2024
The thick, greasy smoke from the blubber stove turned his face black and regularly sent him bursting outside coughing and choking, but he remained cheerful.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
The singer himself told The Times in 1992 that the album’s hit ballad, in which a grizzled narrator blubbers over the one that got away, “had a real strong emotional peak on the record.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
No other show sent me ping-ponging between uncontrollable giggles and mask-dampening blubbers.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 7, 2021
Junior blubbers and begs … and finally, to Krug’s satisfaction, does as he’s told.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 1, 2015
He blubbers about beauty, about shame, about the death of cats, about art, about John McEnroe’s tennis defeats, about movies, about fatherhood, about rejection, about love, about fear.
From New York Times ● May 27, 2014
But really I’m thinking, what can you do with a man who blubbers when you make him pancakes?
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
One night she introduced herself to Jones, who was directing her then-boyfriend in a short play, and, by Waller-Bridge’s account, blubbered incoherently about being an actress.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2019
“And yet I still separate my career to before February 2017 and what came after,” he blubbered between heaves of tattle-crying.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 28, 2019
Bubba blubbered after each of his other three victories, too.
From Chicago Tribune ● Apr. 9, 2012
“A bunch of sandlotters, those Mets,” he blubbered.
From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2012
“She’s even starting to sound like him,” Mike blubbered with his mouth full.
From "Crash" by Jerry Spinelli
On restaurant outings I have pulled up a scene from the cinematic gem “Hoosiers” and gotten choked up while my kids prayed I wouldn’t still be blubbering when the waiter came.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Keep a box of tissues close by: I was a blubbering mess two minutes in, when Hanks follows Murray’s cold open with one of the eulogies from Candy’s funeral.
From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2025
You’re going to just get stern and I’m just going to be a blubbering idiot.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2023
"That moment, being about to be announced as Olympic champions, I was gone. I was blubbering," said Daley.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2021
Blake recounted how he woke from a nap behind the stables to find Cora standing over him with her hatchet, blubbering.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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.
