whalebone

[ hweyl-bohn, weyl- ]

noun

baleen.
a thin strip of this substance, as for stiffening a corset.

Origin of whalebone

First recorded in 1600–10; whale¹ + bone

Words Nearby whalebone

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use whalebone in a sentence

The suffragettes got us the vote and they did it in whalebone corsets.
What's Wrong With Skinny? | Lisa Hilton | February 8, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
These steel ribs and this whalebone make it more like a piece of harness than anything else I can think of.
The value of a praying mother | Isabel C. Byrum
She bit and thrashed and tore at him, her bare little body hard as whalebone and slippery with sweat.
The Stars, My Brothers | Edmond Hamilton
The travellers consisted of an old French lady and gentleman; Madame in a high crimped cap, and stiff long whalebone stays.
Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808 | Lt-Col. Pinkney
Well, if the oil is replaced and whalebone has no value, what is to be got out of whaling now, then?
The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries | Francis Rolt-Wheeler

But within the last ten years there have been so many substitutes for whalebone that its value has gone down.
The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries | Francis Rolt-Wheeler

British Dictionary definitions for whalebone

whalebone

/ (ˈweɪlˌbəʊn) /

noun

Also called: baleen a horny elastic material forming a series of numerous thin plates that hang from the upper jaw on either side of the palate in the toothless (whalebone) whales and strain plankton from water entering the mouth
a thin strip of this substance, used in stiffening corsets, bodices, etc

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Browse