Definition of "whale" []

• Any of various marine mammals of the order Cetacea, having the general shape of a fish with forelimbs modified to form flippers, a tail with horizontal flukes, and one or two blowholes for breathing, especially one of the very large species as distinguished from the smaller dolphins and porpoises. (noun)
• Informal An impressive example: a whale of a story. (noun)
• To engage in the hunting of whales. (verb-intransitive)
• To strike or hit repeatedly and forcefully; thrash. (verb-transitive)
• To attack vehemently: The poet whaled away at the critics. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "We can refer meaningfully to whales, to the creatures picked out by the term whale (the name for the kind), without knowing the essential features of whales, features likely to involve subtle biological details."
• "Actually touching a whale is the big aim for all the tourists and they seem to spend many hours trying to do just that."
• "HALL: We had flown into an L.Z. just south of what you call the whale and we had moved into an area after we got off the helicopter, we started receiving fire."