Whale

whale
    n 1: a very large person; impressive in size or qualities [syn:
         {giant}, {hulk}, {heavyweight}, {whale}]
    2: any of the larger cetacean mammals having a streamlined body
       and breathing through a blowhole on the head
    v 1: hunt for whales
    

Whale \Whale\, n. [OE. whal, AS. hw[ae]l; akin to D. walvisch,
   G. wal, walfisch, OHG. wal, Icel. hvalr, Dan. & Sw. hval,
   hvalfisk. Cf. {Narwhal}, {Walrus}.] (Zool.)
   Any aquatic mammal of the order {Cetacea}, especially any one
   of the large species, some of which become nearly one hundred
   feet long. Whales are hunted chiefly for their oil and
   baleen, or whalebone.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: The existing whales are divided into two groups: the
         toothed whales ({Odontocete}), including those that
         have teeth, as the cachalot, or sperm whale (see {Sperm
         whale}); and the baleen, or whalebone, whales
         ({Mysticete}), comprising those that are destitute of
         teeth, but have plates of baleen hanging from the upper
         jaw, as the right whales. The most important species of
         whalebone whales are the bowhead, or Greenland, whale
         (see Illust. of {Right whale}), the Biscay whale, the
         Antarctic whale, the gray whale (see under {Gray}), the
         humpback, the finback, and the rorqual.
         [1913 Webster]

   {Whale bird}. (Zool.)
   (a) Any one of several species of large Antarctic petrels
       which follow whaling vessels, to feed on the blubber and
       floating oil; especially, {Prion turtur} (called also
       {blue petrel}), and {Pseudoprion desolatus}.
   (b) The turnstone; -- so called because it lives on the
       carcasses of whales. [Canada]

   {Whale fin} (Com.), whalebone. --Simmonds.

   {Whale fishery}, the fishing for, or occupation of taking,
      whales.

   {Whale louse} (Zool.), any one of several species of degraded
      amphipod crustaceans belonging to the genus {Cyamus},
      especially {Cyamus ceti}. They are parasitic on various
      cetaceans.

   {Whale's bone}, ivory. [Obs.]

   {Whale shark}. (Zool.)
   (a) The basking, or liver, shark.
   (b) A very large harmless shark ({Rhinodon typicus}) native
       of the Indian Ocean. It sometimes becomes sixty feet
       long.

   {Whale shot}, the name formerly given to spermaceti.

   {Whale's tongue} (Zool.), a balanoglossus.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Whale
The Hebrew word _tan_ (plural, tannin) is so rendered in Job
7:12 (A.V.; but R.V., "sea-monster"). It is rendered by
"dragons" in Deut. 32:33; Ps. 91:13; Jer. 51:34; Ps. 74:13
(marg., "whales;" and marg. of R.V., "sea-monsters"); Isa. 27:1;
and "serpent" in Ex. 7:9 (R.V. marg., "any large reptile," and
so in ver. 10, 12). The words of Job (7:12), uttered in bitter
irony, where he asks, "Am I a sea or a whale?" simply mean,
"Have I a wild, untamable nature, like the waves of the sea,
which must be confined and held within bounds, that they cannot
pass?" "The serpent of the sea, which was but the wild, stormy
sea itself, wound itself around the land, and threatened to
swallow it up...Job inquires if he must be watched and plagued
like this monster, lest he throw the world into disorder"
(Davidson's Job).

  The whale tribe are included under the general Hebrew name
_tannin_ (Gen. 1:21; Lam. 4:3). "Even the sea-monsters
[tanninim] draw out the breast." The whale brings forth its
young alive, and suckles them.

  It is to be noticed of the story of Jonah's being "three days
and three nights in the whale's belly," as recorded in Matt.
12:40, that here the Gr. ketos means properly any kind of
sea-monster of the shark or the whale tribe, and that in the
book of Jonah (1:17) it is only said that "a great fish" was
prepared to swallow Jonah. This fish may have been, therefore,
some great shark. The white shark is known to frequent the
Mediterranean Sea, and is sometimes found 30 feet in length.
    

121 Moby Thesaurus words for "whale":
      Loch Ness monster, alevin, angle, bait the hook, baste, bastinado,
      beat, belabor, belt, benthon, benthos, birch, bob, buffet, cane,
      cetacean, clam, club, cowhide, cudgel, cut, dap, dib, dibble,
      dinosaur, dolphin, dress down, drive, drub, elephant, fingerling,
      fish, flagellate, flail, flax, flog, fly-fish, fry, fustigate,
      game fish, gig, give a dressing-down, give a whipping,
      give the stick, go fishing, grig, grilse, guddle, hide, hippo,
      hippopotamus, horsewhip, hulk, jack, jacklight, jig, jumbo, kipper,
      knout, lace, larrup, lash, lather, lay on, leather, leviathan,
      lick, mammoth, man-eater, man-eating shark, marine animal,
      mastodon, minnow, minny, monster, nekton, net, paddle, panfish,
      pistol-whip, plankton, pommel, porpoise, pummel, rawhide, salmon,
      scourge, sea monster, sea pig, sea serpent, sea snake, seine,
      shark, shrimp, smite, smolt, spank, spin, sponge, still-fish,
      strap, stripe, swinge, switch, tan, thrash, thump, thumper, torch,
      trawl, trim, troll, tropical fish, trounce, truncheon, wallop,
      wear out, welt, whip, whop, whopper