whaling
Americannoun
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the work or industry of capturing and rendering whales; whale fishing.
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Digital Technology. a phishing attempt by someone 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.
The source of the whaling gave all appearances of legitimacy and trustworthiness.
noun
adverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of whaling
whale 1 + -ing 1; whaling def. 1 was first recorded in 1680–90; whaling def. 2 in 2010–15 (in the sense “hunting for a big fish/phish”)
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.
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
Even decades later, the legacy of whaling continues to shape whale populations, affecting not only how many whales exist today but also which males succeed in fathering calves.
From Science Daily • Mar. 5, 2026
California’s gray whales have been considered an environmental success story since the passage of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act and 1986’s global ban on commercial whaling.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2026
Shetlander Helen Balfour is the assistant curator at the South Georgia Museum in Grytviken, one of the island's former whaling stations.
From BBC • Dec. 31, 2025
Below them two whaling ships were as tiny as insects.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
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.
