hulk

American  

[huhlk] / hʌlk /

noun

hulks plural

1. the body of an old or dismantled ship.

2. a ship specially built to serve as a storehouse, prison, etc., and not for sea service.

3. a clumsy-looking or unwieldy ship or boat.

4. a bulky or unwieldy person, object, or mass.

5. the shell of a wrecked, burned-out, or abandoned vehicle, building, or the like.

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verb (used without object)

1. to loom in bulky form; appear as a large, massive bulk (often followed byup ).

   The bus hulked up suddenly over the crest of the hill.

2. British Dialect. to lounge, slouch, or move in a heavy, loutish manner.

hulk British  

/ hʌlk /

noun

1. the body of an abandoned vessel

2. derogatory a large or unwieldy vessel

3. derogatory a large ungainly person or thing

4. (often plural) the frame or hull of a ship, used as a storehouse, etc, or (esp in 19th-century Britain) as a prison

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verb

1. informal (intr) to move clumsily

2. to rise massively

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• hulks
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hulk

before 1000; Middle English hulke, Old English hulc; perhaps < Medieval Latin hulcus < Greek holkás trading vessel, originally, towed ship

Explanation

A hulk is just the shell of a ship — it can stay afloat on the water, but it's not capable of sailing on the sea. Another kind of hulk is a big person, like the Incredible Hulk who could single-handedly sink the hulk of any ship. Hulks were once commonly used as prisons — floating jails where convicted criminals were kept. Ships become hulks when they're retired due to age, or damaged in a storm. Another meaning of hulk, "enormous person," is rooted in this ship meaning, coming from the sense of either type of hulk as big, awkward, and clumsy. The Middle English source is hulc, "heavy, unwieldy ship," from the Greek holkas, "merchant ship."

Example Sentences

At an estimated cost of $3.8 billion, it will replace the rusting, abandoned hulk that sits at the east end of East Capitol Street, fronting the Anacostia River.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 20, 2026

While he said he finds the idea "interesting", Trump also acknowledged that the prison is currently a "big hulk" that is "rusting and rotting".

From BBC • May 5, 2025

This hulk of metal, a deepwater platform called Appomattox and owned by Shell, collects the oil and gas that rigs tap from reservoirs thousands of feet below the seafloor.

From New York Times • May 3, 2024

The makeshift Philippine naval base there is built up around the grounded, rusting hulk of the World War II-era ship, the Sierra Madre.

From Washington Times • Dec. 5, 2023

There beside the hulk of the ruined car, countless miles from anywhere, Pollard was standing in a metaphor for his own life.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

Related Words

• blob
• hull
• hunk
• skeleton
• wreck