whale

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A very large mammal that lives in the sea and breathes air through a hole on top of its head.

   We watched a huge whale rise to the surface and blow a jet of water into the air.

2. 2
   noun

   A person who gambles or spends extremely large amounts of money.

   The casino rolled out the red carpet for the whale who bet thousands on every hand.

Common collocations

• sperm whale Noun + noun

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos Proto-Germanic *hwalaz Proto-West Germanic *hwal Old English hwæl Middle English whal English whale 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 kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara,…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images