whale

¹ American  

[wayl, hwayl] / weɪl, ʰweɪl /

noun

• whales,
  plural
• whale
  plural

1. any of the larger marine mammals of the order Cetacea, especially as distinguished from the smaller dolphins and porpoises, having a fishlike body, forelimbs modified into flippers, and a head that is horizontally flattened.

2. Informal. something big, great, or fine of its kind.

   I had a whale of a time in Europe.

   Programming this game turned out to be a whale of a project.

3. Also called crypto whale. an investor who holds a large amount of cryptocurrency and is therefore able to create noticeable effects on the market, as by influencing prices through large transactions or by reducing the amount of available cryptocurrency through failure to move their holdings.

   The recent accumulation of this cryptocurrency by whales may indicate that they expect it to see significant gains in the near future.

4. Astronomy. Whale, the constellation Cetus.

---

verb (used without object)

whaled, whaling

1. to engage in whaling or whale fishing.

2. Digital Technology. to phish by posing as a company’s attorney, CEO, vendor, or other authorized entity in order to scam a payroll department, corporate executive, etc., out of money or confidential information.

   When she demonstrated her project, “How to Whale and Make Millions,” they didn’t know whether to award her or arrest her!

verb (used with object)

whaled, whaling

1. Digital Technology. to make (a company’s employee or department) a phishing victim by posing as an entity authorized to procure money or confidential information from the company.

   Before proving he had been whaled, the marketing VP was subjected to much scrutiny and suspicion.

whale ² American  

[hwayl, wayl] / ʰweɪl, weɪl /

verb

whaled, whaling

1. to hit, thrash, or beat soundly.

   Back then, if we misbehaved, Dad would threaten to whale us.

   We took advantage of the other team where they were weakest and whaled the stuffing out of them.

---

verb phrase

1. whale (away) at / on

   1. to work vigorously and continuously at or on.

      It was cool to see this bunch of talented writers whaling away on their screenplay.

      I remember whaling at code over and over, pretty much at random, until I found something that sort of worked.

   2. to strike with furious and repeated blows.

      Satisfying as it was to whale on the punching bag, it did little to restore my emotional balance.

      In the last round, he pinned his opponent in the corner and was whaling away at him with both hands.

   3. to criticize vehemently.

      When hostile people are whaling on your ideas, it’s easy to feel humiliated and angry.

      Now all the political pundits are whaling away at the president for neglecting the military.

   4. to play (an instrument) with abandon.

      There was a jazz musician in the corner of the bar, whaling away at the piano.

      He and his band whaled on their instruments with their whole bodies—it was amazing!

whale ¹ British  

/ weɪl /

noun

1. any of the larger cetacean mammals, excluding dolphins, porpoises, and narwhals. They have flippers, a streamlined body, and a horizontally flattened tail and breathe through a blowhole on the top of the head

2. any cetacean mammal See also toothed whale whalebone whale

3. slang a gambler who has the capacity to win and lose large sums of money in a casino

4. informal an exceptionally large, fine, etc, example of a (person or thing)

   we had a whale of a time on holiday

---

whale ² British  

/ weɪl /

verb

1. (tr) to beat or thrash soundly

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• whale
  plural
• whales
  plural

Etymology

Origin of whale¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English hwæl; cognate with German Wal- in Walfisch, Old Norse hvalr; akin to Latin squalus, a kind of fish; 2005–10 whale ¹ for defs. 6, 7 (from the consideration of the victim as a “big fish/phish”)

Origin of whale²

First recorded in 1780–90; origin uncertain

Explanation

A whale is a large mammal that lives in the ocean. Whales need to breathe air periodically, and the blowholes on their heads help them do this. Blue whales are the largest animals that ever lived — they're even bigger than the largest dinosaurs were! The Old English root of whale means both "whale" and "walrus," although these two marine animals are quite different from each other. While some whales grow to be only ten feet long, many whales are enormous. The informal phrase "a whale of a" comes from the idea that whales are impressive, and you can use it for things (or people) that really distinguish themselves: "Wow, this is a whale of a party!"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

whale whales whaled whaling

“We humans are limited by our input-output rate—we learn only two bits a second, so a ton is lost. To a machine we must seem like slowed-down whale songs.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

The whale was last seen Thursday near Point Fermin in San Pedro.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

Last month, anglers spotted a giant whale shark swimming off Malibu and Santa Barbara Island, a rare occurrence probably driven by warmer waters from El Niño.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

He has seen the large marine mammals before, on planned trips where humpback whale sightings are not as unusual, but this experience was "a complete surprise".

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

A deep groan rumbled up from the biggest whale.

From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown

These humpback whales, they’re right underneath these tiny little boats, and if they wanted to, they could just flick their tail, and you’d be off in the sea.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

He seemed to be an expert at everything, including astronomy, architecture, acting, cars, taxidermy, music, masonry and whales.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Ottawa has also worked to shore up ocean protection funding and rules to protect marine life that could be affected by increased coastal tanker traffic, including the endangered Southern Resident killer whales.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

The observation adds to the small number of documented cases involving deceased calves in baleen whales.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

“And when I finally went back in the water and saw the whales today, I realized how much I had missed it. How happy it made me.”

From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook

Numbers of these 16-foot-long marine mammals, hunted for their oil, meat, and baleen, had fallen to an estimated low of 1,200 animals in the North Pacific—a heavily whaled region—by the 1960s.

From National Geographic ● Sep. 28, 2023

Today’s blue whales find themselves in a whaled and warming ocean.

From Scientific American ● Jul. 31, 2020

Facing Erin's 7,800-plus yards but massively wide fairways—60 yards in some cases—players whaled away with impunity when typical winds failed to blow.

From Golf Digest ● Jun. 4, 2018

Sock, whose nicknames are "J Sizzle" and "Showtime," whaled away on everything.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2014

By his tellin', ther fust Alexander whaled blazes outen all creation an' then sot down an' cried like a baby because ther job he'd done went an' petered out on him.

From A Pagan of the Hills by Charles Neville Buck

“There is a course on international whaling law but none on women’s rights internationally,” she told the black-tie gathering.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

Whitby began a long and profitable history with whaling during the 18th Century and despite the controversial practice being outlawed in 1986 to protect the species, the arch remains popular with both visitors and locals.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

This includes for the animals living in these "chemosynthetic" communities, whose numbers had been thought to have been drastically reduced by human whaling, she added.

From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026

Reports of sperm whales using their heads to strike objects date back to open-boat whaling in the 19th century.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 23, 2026

Owen Chase, whose account of the sinking of the whaling ship Essex by a whale inspired Herman Melville, survived eighty-three days at sea with two mates, interrupted by a one-week stay on an inhospitable island.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

Related Words

• mammal
• porpoise