whaler

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person who hunts whales or works in the whaling industry

   The retired whaler described months spent tracking whales through Arctic seas.

2. 2
   noun

   a ship equipped or employed for hunting whales

   The young sailor signed on as an under-mate aboard a Greenland whaler.

Formed from whale + the agentive or instrumental suffix -er. The compound has named both a person engaged in whale hunting and the vessel used for that work; context determines which is meant.

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