whale
Pronunciation: /ˈweɪl/
The English word “whale” has 10 meanings listed here.
noun
- Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.
- Any species of Cetacea, including dolphins and porpoises.
- Something, or someone, that is very large.
- Something, or someone, that is excellent.
- A gambler who routinely wagers large amounts of money.
- An investor who deals with very large amounts of money.
- A person who spends large amounts of money on things that are marketed to them.
- An overweight person (usually a woman)
verb
Etymology
From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian…
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.