Brewer's: Whale

Not a fish, but a cetaceous mammal.

A group of whales is called a school.

The fat is called blubber.

The female is called a cow.

The fore-limbs are called paddles.

The male is called a bull-whale.

The spear used in whale-flashing is called a harpoon.

The young of whales is a cub or calf.

TOOTHED-WHALES include sperm-whales and dolphins.

WHALE-BONE WHALES include rorquals and humpbacks.

Whale

Very like a whale. Very much like a cock-and-bull story; a fudge. Hamlet chaffs Polonius by comparing a cloud to a camel, and then to a weasel, and when the courtier assents Hamlet adds, “Or like a whale”; to which Polonius answers, “Very like a whale.” (Act iii. 2.)

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