whale

¹ American  

[weyl, hweyl] / 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.

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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  

[hweyl, weyl] / 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.

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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

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whale ² British  

/ weɪl /

verb

1. (tr) to beat or thrash soundly

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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

Humpback whale mothers may experience grief when their calves die, a rare observation led by Griffith University and Sea World Foundation has found.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

One of the senior researchers on the expedition, Andrew DeVogelaere, said he was focused on the seafloor, “thinking about the whale pits,” when the squid suddenly showed up.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026

They also left behind hydrophones that will capture sound, which could allow them to identify the specific whale species in the area.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026

More than two million tourists travel to the islands each year—drawn by the clear waters where they can observe marine life like turtles, manta rays and whale sharks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

As you might have guessed, reader, that giant creature was a whale.

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

"If you start looking at long-lived species like elephants, whales and bats, you start finding ways that nature has actually already resolved a lot of these problems in human health," Vazquez added.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026

In a study published in Science Advances on Wednesday, researchers equipped six of the toothed whales, sometimes called "unicorns of the sea," with satellite transmitters, and had them explore remote East Greenland waters.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

To date, whales have been transported both by air and truck.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

An estimated 4,000 humpback whales, 6,000 fin whales and 6,000 minke whales visited the Greenland Sea in the summer of 2024.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

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

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

In that bout, both men whaled away and scored two knockdowns apiece before Matthysse knocked out Molina in the 11th round.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2015

No ships in the Bering whaled for oil; that pursuit was confined to Southern seas.

From The Ice Pilot by Henry Leverage

The Mentor had set sail from New Bedford, Mass., the whaling capital of the United States, in July 1831, with a complement of 21 men led by Capt. Edward Barnard.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

Much of what scientists know about whale behavior comes from studying populations that had already been heavily impacted by whaling.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2026

The Browns had a hand in everything from ironmaking and rum distilling to whaling and the slave trade.

From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026

California shut down the nation’s last whaling station in 1971.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026

He was working solo, whaling on battle dummies with a sword I’d never seen before.

From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• mammal
• porpoise