r 
wetting-machine 
wetting-machine (wet'ing-ma-shen''), H. A 
mechanism that dampenn paper and makes it 
suitable for printing, it is made in many forms, the 
simplest of which is a tlexible and vibrating rose-nozle 
attached by a pipe to a water-tank. Paper for web-presses 
is usually dampened by a spray of water from a perforated 
pipe as the paper is automatically unwound. 
wettish (wet'ish), a. [< ict-n + -ishK^ Some- 
what wet; moist; humid. 
we-uns. See under we. 
weveH, v. An old spelling of iceave^. 
weve-t, V. t. A Middle English form of waive, 
weve-H, '-. See weave^. 
wevilt, ». An obsolete spelling of weevil 
wext, V. An obsolete form of wax^. 
weyi (wa), n, [< ME. weie^ waie^ weihe, wsese, < 
AS. w£Bg{= OHU. tcdga = Icel. vdf/), a weight, < 
ire^/flM, raise, lift: seetm///*i, w.,andef. weight^,'] 
1 . A unit of weight, 14 stone according to the 
old statute de ponderibus. But a wey of wool is 6.V 
tods, or 13 stone; locally, 30, 30^, or 31 pounds. A wey of 
hemp was tiO pounds in Somei-setshire, 32 pounds in Dor- 
setshire, being 8 heads of 4 pounds, twisted and tied. A 
statute of 1430 Ueclarts that cheese shall not be weighed 
by the ouncel, but by the wey of 32 cloves, each clove of 7 
poands, except in Essex, where it is 2.'>6 pounds, or 32 
cloves of 7i pounds. But locally it was 3 hundredweight, 
or 416 pounds. 
Hence — 2, A unit of measure, properly 40 
bushels. So a statute of George III. makes a wey of salt 
one ton, which is 40 bushels. But another statute of the 
same monarch makes a wey of meal 48 bushels of 84 pounds 
each ; and in Devonshire a wey of lime, coals, or culm was 
sometimes 48 double Winchester bushels. So in South 
Wales a wey of coals is 0, not 5, chaldrons. 
3. An amount of window-glass — 60 cases. 
[Eng. in all uses.] 
wey^t, weyef, v. Obsolete spellings of weight. 
wey^f, n. An obsolete form of wat/^. 
weyeret, «. An obsolete spelliug of weigher. 
Weymouth pine. See />*«f i. 
weyvet. v. An old spelling of icaive. 
wezandt, n. An obsolete spelling of wcasand. 
W. f. In printing, an abbreviation of wrong 
font: a mark on the margin of a proof, calling 
attention to the fact that the letter or letters, 
etc., opposite dilTer from the rest in size or 
face. 
W. O. An abbreviation of Worthy Grand^ pre- 
fixed to various titles of office among Free-ma- 
sons and similar orders: as, W. G. C. ( Worthy 
Grand Chaplain or Conductor). 
Wh-. See W, 1. 
wha (hwii), jiron. An obsolete or dialectal 
(Scotch) fonn of who, 
whaap, n. See whnup. 
whack (hwak), V. [A var. of th/tck'^, appar. sug- 
gested by whop, whop, whip, etc., the fonn 
thwack being intermediate between thack'^ and 
trAocA'.] I, trauji. 1. To give a heavy or re- 
sounding blow to; thwack. [Colloq.] 
A traveller, coming up, flnds the missing man by whack- 
ing each of them over the shoulder. 
W. A. Clougton, Book of Noodles, ii. 
2. To divide into shares; apportion; parcel 
out. [Slang.] 
They then, as theytenn it, whack the whole lot. 
Mayhetc, Londuii Lalxmr and London Poor, II. l.'J2. 
H. intrans. 1. To strike, or continue strik- 
ing, anything wltli smart blows. [Colloq.] — 
2. To make a division or settlement; square 
accounts; pay: often in the phrase to whack 
up. [Slang.] 
The city has never whacked up with the gas conipany. 
Elect. Rev. (Amer.), XIII. 9. 
At last Long J and I got to quarrel about the whack- 
ing; there was cheatin" a goin' on. 
Mayhew, London labour and London Poor, II. 172. 
whack (hwak), n. [< wharky r.] 1. A heavy 
blow; a thwack. 
Sometimes a chap will give me a lick with a stick just 
as I'm going over ; sometimes a regular gtMjd hard whack. 
Mayhew, London Labour and I^judon Poor, II. 5G4. 
2. A stroke; a trial or attempt: as, to tako a 
M7Aa/"A:at ajob. [Slang.] — 3. Apiece; a share; 
a portion. [Slang.] 
This gay young hacbelor had taken his share (wliat he 
called "his whack") of pleasure. 
Thackeray, Shabl)y (;enteel Story, v. 
My word I he did more than his xvhnrk; 
He waa never a cove as would shirk. 
G. Walch, A Little Tin Plate (A Century of .Australian 
(Song, p. 509). 
4. Appetite. Halliwell. [Prov. Krig.] 
whaCKer (hwak'er), ". [< whack + -//-i.] Some- 
thing strikingly large of its kind; a big tiling; 
a whopper. T. Iliit/hes, Tom Brown at Oxford, 
II. vii. [Slan(r.] 
whacking (hwak'ing). a. [Ppv. of whack, r. ; 
cf. whopping^ etc.] Very lurifc ; lusty; whop- 
ping: as, u whacking ^^\x or falsehood. Often 
6883 
used adverbially : as, a whacking big fish. [Col- 
loq.] 
whahoo (hwa-ho'), )i. Same as wahoo, but ap- 
plied specifically to the winged elm. 
whaintf, whaintiset. Middle English forms of 
qu/iint, quainti-^c. 
whaisle, whaizle (hwa'zl), v. i. [A dial. freq. 
of wheez€.'\ To breathe hard, as in asthma; 
wheeze. [Scotch.] 
But sax Scotch miles thou try 't their mettle, 
An' gart them whaizle. 
Bwms, Farmer's Salutation to his Auld Mare. 
whake, Whaker, Dialectal forms of quake, 
quaker. 
whale^ (hwal), n. [< ME. hwaly what, qwal, 
qual, < AS. hw^l (pi. hwalas) = MD. wal = Icel. 
hvalr = Sw. Dan. hval, a whale, including any 
large tish or cetacean ; also in comp. D. walvisch 
= OHG. walHsCy MHG. wal-visch, G. walfisch 
= Icel. hcalfiskr = Sw. Dan. hraliisk, a whale 
(see whale-fish); ef. OHG. MJa/Zm, 'MHG. walrc, 
a whale; cf. also MHG. G. wels, shad. Hence 
ult. in comp. E. walrus, narwhal, horsewhale; ul- 
terior origin unknown. Skeat connects whale^j 
as lit. 'the roller,' with tvheel'^; others connect 
it with L. balsena, a whale. Both derivations are 
untenable.] Any member of the mammalian 
order CcUicea or Ccte (which see); an ordinary 
cetacean, as distinguished from a sirenian, or 
so-called herbivorous cetacean ; a marine mam- 
mal of fish-like form and habit, with fore limbs 
in the form of fin-like flippers, withoiit external 
trace of hind limbs, and with a naked body 
tapering to a tail with flukes which are like a 
fish's caudal fin, but are horizontal instead of 
vertical; especially, a cetacean of large to the 
largest size, the small ones being distinctively 
named dolphins, porpoises, etc. : in popular use 
applied to any large marine animal, (a) Whale is 
not less strictly applicable than universally applied to the 
tfKJthless or whalel»one whales, all of which are of great 
size, and some of which are by far the largest of animals. 
They consist of the right whales, finner-whales, and hump- 
backs, composing the family Bal/enidie alone, and repre- 
sent rive well-marked genera, namely : (1) Baliena proper, 
the right whales, without any dorsal flu and with smooth 
throat ; (2) AeobalsFtia, based on N. man/inata, a whale- 
bone whale said to combine a smooth throat with pres- 
ence of a dorsal tin; (3) Rachianectes, with one species, 
R. glaucus, the gray whale; (4) Megaptera, the hump- 
backed whales, with a doi-sal fin, furrowed throat, and long 
flippers, of sevenU nominal species of all seas; and (5) 
Balsenoptcra, the true tinners, or rorquals, with dorsal fin, 
furrowed throat, and short flippers : it comprises at least 
four, and probably more, species. Various otlier genera 
have been named (as Agapheluii for certain so-called scrag- 
whales), and the generic synonyms of these whales arc 
probably more numerous than the actual species, (b) 
Whale is extended, nearly always with a ([ualifying word, 
to most of the odontocete or toothed cetaceans, and espe- 
cially to those of great size, as the sperm-whale, but also to 
srmie of the smallest, no larger than a dolphin, as the p} g- 
my or porixiise sperm-whales of the geims Kogia, and to 
various forms of intermediate sizes, as the pilot-whales 
(Globicephaliia), the bottle-nosed or bottle-headed whales 
(Ilyperoodoii), tlie white whales (Delphiriapterun), etc. 
Some of these whales also have distinctive names into 
which whale does not enter, as blackjigh, beluga, boitlehead, 
bottlenf)»e, grampus, killer, etc., or they share the qualified 
names jxirpoixe and dolphin vf'\i\\ various small cetaceans 
more properly so called. The genera and species of the 
t^wthed whales are much more numerous than those of 
the baleen whales ; their synonymy is very extensive 
and intricate, and is in some cases in a state of confusion 
which can only be cleared up by future research, (c) In 
geologic time whales date back to the Kocene ; and 
a suborder Arch^oceti (contrasted with Odonti>ceii and 
Mtjffticete) has been named to cover certain forms still only 
imperfectly known from fragmentary remains. (See Zeu- 
glodon.) The oldest whales like any of the living forms 
date from tlie late Eocene, and are tiwthed whales related 
tu the bumpltacks. Whalebone whales are not kiiown to 
be ithler than the Pliocene. (</) In present geographical 
distritiution whales ai-e found in all seas, and some of 
tlicTii enter rivers. Most of the species are individually 
wiile-ranging on the high seas, and attempts which have 
been made to discriminate similar forms from different 
waters have in most cases proved futile. Sevend of the 
larger forms have been the objects of systematic fisheries 
for centuries, (f'^eti whale-Jtshery.) The principal products 
are oil, both train and sperm, baleen or whalebone, sper- 
maceti, and ambergris; the hide of some of the smaller 
whales atfords a leather. Whales are exclusively carnivo- 
rcjus. and feed for the most part upon a great variety of 
small animals which float on the surface of the sea, gener- 
ally known collectively as hrit or whale-hrit. This includes 
various cephalupods, as sijuids and cuttles, with other 
inotluska of dilferent orders, as well as several different 
kinds of crustaceans, brit of some kinds covers the ocean 
whale 
in immense areas, to which the whales resort as feeding- 
grounds. 8ome whales attack large animals, even of their 
own kind (see killei-, Orca^), but nearly all are timid and 
inoffensive, seeking only U) avoid their enemies, though 
capable of formidable resistance to attack. Whales bring 
forth their young alive, like all mammals above the mono- 
tremes, and suckle them ; the teats are a pair, beside the 
vulva. They breathe only air, for which purpose they must 
regularly seek the surface, though capable of remaining 
long under water without respiring. The spouting of the 
whale is the act of expiration, during which the air in the 
lungs, loaded with watery vapor, is forcibly expelled like 
spray in a single stream, or in two streams, according as 
the blowholes are single or there are a pair of these 
spiracles. Some sea-water may be mixed with the lireath, 
if the whale spouts beneath the surface, but the visible 
stream is chiefly condensed vapor, like that of human 
breath on a cold day. Whales have a naked skin, sav- 
ing a few bristles about the mouth, chiefly in the young; 
the hide is often incrusted with barnacles, or infested with 
other crustacean parasites. The bodily temperature is 
maintained in the coldest surroundings by the heavy layer 
of blubber which lies under the skin of the whole body, 
and in the sperm-whale forms a special deposit on the 
skull, giving its singula:' shape to the head. The general 
form of the body is like that of a flsh, in adaptation to en- 
tirely aquatic habits and means of locomotion. It tapers 
behind the body-cavity in a solid muscular part, the innall, 
and ends in broad, short flukes lying horizontally and ex- 
tending from side to side. This tail-fln is the principal or- 
gan of locomotion, like the vertical caudal fin of a flsh. The 
fore limbs fonii flippers of vailing length in different spe- 
cies. These flns are of medium length in the right whale, 
short in the sperm and rorqual, and extremely long in the 
humpback. In all cases the pectoral fln has a skeleton 
composed of the same joints or segments as the fore limb of 
ordinary mammals, and of all the usual bones except a cla- 
vicle ; but the digital phalanges are more numerous. The 
dorsal fin, when present, is a mere excrescence, without any 
bony basis. There is never any outward sign of hind limbs, 
but the skeleton of some whales includes certain vestigial 
bones of a proximal segment of the pelvic limb, entirely 
separate from the spinal column, and apparently only serv- 
ing in the male as a suspensorium for the penis. Thei e 
is consequently no sacrum, nor any break in the series of 
vertebrse from the hindmost that bears ribs to the end of 
the spinal column. The cervical vertebrse offer excep- 
tional conditions. (See cut mwAqt ankylosis.) The denti- 
tion of whales is sufhciently diverse to furnish characters 
of the main divisions of cetaceans. The entire toothless- 
ness of the baleen whales is matched by few mammiUs 
(see Edentata) ; the presence of teeth in the lower jaw only, 
as in various odontocete whales, is peculiar; the denti- 
tion of the narwhal is wholly exceptional. Teeth, when 
present, are always homodont (like one another) and 
monophyodont (there being no milk-teeth). The soft 
palate and the larynx are specialized in adaptation to the 
act of spouting. The digestive organs are comparatively 
simple ; the uterus is bicornous, the placenta dittuse and 
non-deciduate ; the testes are abdominal ; and there is no 
OS penis nor seminal vesicle. The ciiculatory system is 
notable for its plexuses, both ai'terial and venous. Not- 
withstanding the outward resemblance to a fish, whales 
belong to the higher (educabilian) series of mammals, hav- 
ing a relatively large brain. One of the most remarkable 
of the many anomalies presented by this highly specialized 
order of mammals is the difference in size of its mem- 
bers, the range being far greater than that of any other 
'3900.3. 
ordinal group — from 4 to about 80 feet in linear dimen- 
sion. The size of the larger whales has been grossly ex- 
aggerated in many of the accounts which find popular 
credence. Adult right whales of different species range 
from 20 to 50 feet in length, only the polar whale attaining 
the latter dimension; the connnon humpback is from 41) 
to 50 feet long ; the sperm-whale reaches 60 feet ; and the 
rorquals of several species range from 40 to 80 feet, the 
maximum length being reached only by the blue ronpial, 
which is the largest of known animals.— Arctic Whale, 
the polar whale, Baliena mysticetnn; that right wli:du 
which is of circumpolar distribution, as distinguished 
from any such whale of temperate \orth Atlantic or North 
Pacific waters, or from which the latter are sought to be 
distinguished, as the Atlantic, Pacific, nort/nreat, or Bis- 
cay w7t«/(^.— Atlantic whale, the right whale of temper- 
ate North Atlantic waters. It is not distinct from the 
southern right wiiale, Baliena australis, though so named, 
as B. ci,sarctica, and as B. bixcayensitt, the Biscay wliale. 
— Australian whale, the New Ze:dand whale.— Baleen 
wliale, any whalebone whale, as a right whale. See cuts 
under iffl/ff/i('(/fl? and whalebone. — Biscay whale, Baliena 
Hscayensis, long the object of a special flsln'ry by the 
Basques, conducted as early as the tenth century. — Black 
whale, (a) Any baleen whale, as distinguished from a 
sperm-whale. (6) Sec hlackjinh. -1, black-whale, and Globi- 
cepfiaiiis. — Blue Whale, Sibbald's whale; the large ror- 
qual. -Bone-whale, any baleen whale. -Bottle-headed 
whale, a zipliioid whale; a cetacean of the family Ziphi- 
it/«!.— Bottle-nosed whale. See boitlenose, l (b\ and cut 
at Ziphiiiue. — Bow-head whale, the jiolar whale, or bow- 
head.— Bull Whale, any adult male whale ; a bull.— Calf- 
Whale, any young whale. — California Whale, tlie gray 
Liilifuiiiia (".t.iy Wluik' (Ktn /iiui/^, Ui\f;/niiins). 
