- 1
Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.
- Near-synonym: baleen (obsolete sense)
- 2
Any species of Cetacea, including dolphins and porpoises.broadly
- The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene,
- 3
Something, or someone, that is very large.figuratively
- It was a whale of a job. […] It took two months, and the fair blush of youth off my cheeks.
- 4
Something, or someone, that is excellent.figuratively
- My own father only wrote one poem in his life as far as I know, but it was a whale of a lyric, the kind you would give your whole life to write, which he did, but that is another story.
- 5
A gambler who routinely wagers large amounts of money.figuratively
- These are often no-limit games as maximum bets cramp a whale’s style.
- A handful of the richest whales routinely play for $200,000 a hand. Australian media mogul Kerry Packer not only regularly bets that much, but has plunked down $200,000 bets for the dealer as a form of a tip.
- 6
An investor who deals with very large amounts of money.figurativelyinformal
- If the banks knew how big Archegos’s position was, they may have realized other banks were supplying it with the same leverage — and reconsidered the trade. But a set of worrisome regulatory loopholes kept them from detecting this lurking w
- 7
A person who spends large amounts of money on things that are marketed to them.figuratively
- Whales are the big spenders who drop huge amounts of money into a game.
- These different customer groups will be attracted to very different promotions. Your whales might enjoy receiving frequent emails from you and will purchase almost every time.
- 8
An overweight person (usually a woman).colloquialderogatoryfiguratively
- The whale is still snoring. He's a real beauty, the whale. Got this thick curly hair all over his chest and stomach and legs.
syn. whale