hulk
Americannoun
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the body of an old or dismantled ship.
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a ship specially built to serve as a storehouse, prison, etc., and not for sea service.
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a clumsy-looking or unwieldy ship or boat.
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a bulky or unwieldy person, object, or mass.
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the shell of a wrecked, burned-out, or abandoned vehicle, building, or the like.
verb (used without object)
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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.
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British Dialect. to lounge, slouch, or move in a heavy, loutish manner.
noun
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the body of an abandoned vessel
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derogatory a large or unwieldy vessel
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derogatory a large ungainly person or thing
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(often plural) the frame or hull of a ship, used as a storehouse, etc, or (esp in 19th-century Britain) as a prison
verb
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informal (intr) to move clumsily
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to rise massively
Etymology
Origin of hulk
before 1000; Middle English hulke, Old English hulc; perhaps < Medieval Latin hulcus < Greek holkás trading vessel, originally, towed ship
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.
As Hummel predicted, before his lunch break, he had gotten the old transmission out of the truck and was ratchet-strapping the hulking new transmission onto a jack to pump it up into place.
George Foreman’s hulking frame and ferocious power are what made him an Olympic gold medalist and a two-time heavyweight champion of the world.
The end product is a hulking gray, steel box that holds nine to 12 windings—a total of about 9 miles of copper that would stretch the length of 160 football fields.
My friends and I have experienced the kind of contradictory adventure this route allows: playing in the snow in the same weekend we visited an oasis shaded by hulking palm trees.
From Los Angeles Times
When developing his idea for the memorial, Hall studied the architectural pedigree of each house before planning the extractions of their chimneys, hulking towers of brick, stone and mortar.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
