whale 
whale. See Jiachiawctes.— CaMii^ whale, a c:iaing- 
whale; a pilot- wJuile. — Cape Whale, the southern right 
\vh:Ue, Baliena atuitrali^.— Cow Whale, any adult feiualc 
whale; a dam. -Denticete whales, the toothed whales. 
— Digger whale, the gi-ay whale.— Down Whale, a 
whale under water, as in soundinp. — Finback whale, 
a finner-wiiale; a rorqual; any whale of the family BaLr- 
iwpteridie. See cut under rorqtml. ^Tin-Whale or fin- 
ner-Whale, a finback whale; any whalebone whale with 
a dorsal flu. as a humpback or rorqual ; a furrowed whale. 
See Balanioptera, Megaptera, and cut under rorqual.— 
Furrowed whale, a whalebone whale with the skin of 
the throat plicated, or thrown into ridges and furrows, 
and a dorsal tin : distinguished from smooth u-hale. The 
humpbacks and the tinners or rorquals aie furrowed 
w hales. See Bcdsenopteridie. — Giant sperm-whale, 
the sperm-whale proper. See cut under sperm-whale. — 
Gray whale, the California whale, liackianecies glaucus, 
a large flnner-whale or rorqual of the Pacitic coast of 
^orth America. It has many locsd names, as devil-fish, 
grayback, hardhead, mussel digijer, ripsack, etc. See Ba- 
chiajiectes.— GreaX polar whale, the polar or Green- 
land right whale.— Greenland whale, the right whale 
of the North Atlantic ; the great polar whale, Balmna 
»iJ/,sVtc^/(«. — Humpbacked whale. See humpback and 
Hiimpbacked Whale \Mejr,iptera boops,. 
Mejaptera.~Ja,pa.Tl or Japanese whale, Balfena japo- 
nica, a right whale of the North I'aciftc. — Killer-Whale. 
See killer, ;j, and Orca'^. — Loose Whale, a whale that 
has not been struck by the toggle-iron, or a whale that 
has been fastened to, but has made its escape.— Mysti- 
cete whales, the toothless or baleen whales ; whalebone 
whales. Sec Mysticete, Megapteriiife, Balienidse. — New 
Zealand whale, Neuhalsena viarginata, a wlialebone 
whale of Polynesian and Australian waters, not yet well 
known, having the smooth throat of the right whales, a 
doi-sal (In, very long and slender white baleen, small flip- 
pers with only four digits, and various osteological pecu- 
liarities. It is of smallest size among the baleen whales, 
being only about 20 feet long.— Northwest Whale, the 
right whale of the northwestern coast of North America, 
Balfena sieboldi, as distinguislied from the southern right 
whale. Also called Pacific right ivhale. — 'PiiOtrWhale. 
Same as caaing-tvhale. — Tolax Whale, the right whale 
of the arctic Atlantic waters, or Greenland whale. Bala?- 
na mysticettts, more fully called great polar whale, and 
by many local names, as bow-head, titeepletop, ice-break- 
er, ice whale, etc. — Pygmy sperm-whale, a toothed 
whale of the genus Kogia; a porpoise sperm-whale (which 
see, under sperm-whale).— "Right Whale, a whaleljone 
whale of the restricted genus Balfena : so called, it is 
said, because this is the "right" kind of whale to take. 
Right whales inhabit all known seas, and those of the 
main divisions of the waters of the globe have been spe- 
cified by name, as the arctic, polar, or Greenland right 
whale, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the southern, the north- 
west, etc. These have received several technical names, 
as B. mgxticetus of the Arctic ocean, B. biscayensis or cis- 
arctica of the North Atlantic, B. australis of the Soutli At- 
lantic, B. japonica of the Noilh Pacific, B. antipodarumot 
the South Pacific, and others. It is not likely that more 
than two valid species are represented in this synonymy : 
(a) jB. mysticetns is of circumpolar disti-ibution in the 
northern hemisphere. It attains a length of from 40 to r)0 
feet, has no doi-sal fin, flippers of medium size, and very 
long narrow flukes, tapering to a point and somewhat fal- 
cate. Tlie greatest girth is about the middle, whence the 
body tapers rapidly to the comparatively slender root of 
the tail. The throat is smooth ; the head is of great size ; 
and the eye is situated very low down and far back, be- 
Ptilar Rijjht Whale ^Unlmna ntystitetus). 
tween the base of the flipper and the corner of the mouth. 
The profile of the mouth is strongly arched, and its capacity 
is enormous, exceeding tliat of the thorax and abdomen 
together. This cavern is fringed on each side with baleen 
hangiTig from the upper jaw ; the iilatcs are 350 to 400 on 
each side, the longest attaining a length of 10 or 12 feet; 
they are black in color, and finely frayed out along the 
inner edge into a fringe of long elastic filaments. When 
the jaws are closed, the baleen serves as a sieve to strain 
out the multitudes of small mollusks or crustaceans upon 
which the whale feeds, and which are gulped in with 
many barrels of water in the act of graziitg the sur- 
face with open mouth. Aliout 300 of the slabs on each 
side are mt;rchantable, representing 15 hundredweight of 
bone from a whale of average size, which yields also If) 
tons of oil ; but some large individuals render nearly 
twice as much of both the.^e iModucts. {b) The southern 
light whale, B. aitstralis, difitrs fiom the polar whale in 
its projwrtionately shorter and smaller Iiead, greater con- 
vexity of the arch of the mouth, shorter haleen, and more 
numerous vertebrae. It irdiabita both Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans in temperate latitudes, and in the former waterd 
was the object of a fishery duiing the middle ages for the 
Kuropean supply of oil and Ijone. 'J'his industry gave way 
to the pursuit of the polar whale about the beginning of 
6884 
the seventeenth century. This whale has long been rare 
in the North Atlantic, but has occasionally stranded on 
the European coast, and more frequently on that of the 
United States. A similar if not identical right whale is 
hunted in temperate North Pacific waters. Right whales 
are rare and not pursued in tropical seas, but are objects 
of the chase in vai'ious parts of the south temperate 
ocean. See cuts above, and under Bal/vnid/e. — 'RVL- 
dolphi'S whale, the small finner-whalc or rorqual, Ba- 
leenopiera borcalis. See ror^a^.— Sibbald'S Whalej a very 
large finnerwhale, the blue rorqual, Bal/rnoptera stbbaldi, 
one of the two or three largest of all animals. See ror- 
g'wa?. — Siebold'S whale, a right whale of the North I'a- 
ciflc, nominally BaL'ena gieboldi. See narthwesi wfiale. 
above. — Smooth whale, a whalebone whale having no 
plications of the skin of the throat and no dorsal ftn, as a 
right whale: distinguished ivoiw furrowed whale. See 
iJa^^mrf*.- Southern right whale, BaUena australis of 
the South Atlantic, admitted as a distinct species from the 
polar right whale. See Atlantic whale, aliove.- South 
Pacific whale, a southern right whale, Baliena antipoda- 
rw/rt.— Sower by *s whale, a ziphioid whale, Mesftplodon 
sow'crbiensis, of the Atlantic — Spermaceti Whale, the 
spenn-whale.— Sulphur whale, sulphur-bottomed 
whale. Same as sulphur-bottom.- To bone a whale, to 
strike a bone, as the shoulder-blade, in lancing a whale.— 
Toothed whale, a whale or other cetacean with true teeth 
in one or both jaws ; any member of the division Denticete 
or Odontoceti: distinguished from whalebone whale.— To 
throw a tub to a whale. See tid>. — Very like a whale, 
an expression of ironical assent to an assertion or a propo- 
sition regarded as preposterous : from the use of the phrase 
by Polonius in humoring Hamlet's supposed madness : 
Ham. Methinks it fa cloud] is like a weasel. 
Pol. It is backed like a weasel. 
Ham. Or like a whale? 
Pol. Very like a whale. Shak., Hamlet, iii. 2. 399. 
Whalebone whale, a baleen whale; a toothless whale 
whose mouth contains whalebone ; any member of the Ba- 
Isenidx, as a right whale, humpback, or rorqual, whether 
furrowed or smooth. — Whale of passage, a migratory 
whale, or a whale during its migration.— Whale's bonet, 
ivory: perhaps because supposed to come from the bones 
of the whale, at a time when the real source of the material 
was little known, or when most of the ivory used in western 
Europe consisted of the teeth of the walrus, confounded 
with the whale, and possibly those of the spenn-whale, 
which, though of comparatively small size, are of fine 
quality. The term was in common use for several centu- 
ries. 
Her hands so white as ichales bone. 
Her finger tipt with Cassidone. 
Puttenham, Partheniades, vii. 
This is the flower that smiles on every one, 
To show his teeth as white as whale's bone. 
Shak., L L. L., v. 2. 332. 
White whale, a whale of the family Delphinidm and ge- 
nus Delphinapterus, as D. leucas; a beluga. The species 
named inhabits arctic and subai'ctic waters, and is prized 
for its fine oil and valuable skin. The latter makes a kind 
of leather used for mast-bays and some military accoutre- 
ments. Also called whitefish. See cut under Delphinap- 
terus.— Ziphioid whales. See Hyperoodon, Ziphius, 
Ziphiinse. (See also caaing-whale, ice-whale, scrag-whale, 
sperm-ivhale.) 
whale^ (hwill), V. i. ; pret. aud pp. whaled, ppr. 
whaliiKj. [< whttle'^, ;;.] To take whales; pur- 
sue tbe business of whale-fisliiug. 
Cruising and whaling in the bays is full of excitement 
and anxiety. C. M, Scammon, Marine Mammals, p. (>3. 
Whale^ (hwal), r. t. ; pret. and i)p. icltalcd, ppr. 
ivhaling. [Avar, of tcale'^^ the change of initial 
IV- to wh~ being perhaps due to association with 
whacl; ichap, whij), etc.] To lasli witli vigorous 
stripes; thrash or beat soundly. [Colloq.] 
I have whipped you, Antipodes fa lioi-se], but have I 
whaled you? T. Winthrop, Canoe and Saddle, xii. 
But first I would remark, that it is not a proper plan 
For any scientific gent to whale his follow-man. 
Bret Harte, The Society upon the Stanislaus. 
whaleback (hwal'bak), ». Same as turtlcbacl'. 
The deck is elliptical, with a whale-back from the con- 
ning tower to the bow. 2'he Engineer, LXIX. 140. 
whale-barnacle (hwarbiir'na-kl), n. A cirri- 
ped of the family Coronulidee, parasitic upon 
whales, as CoronuJa diadema. See cut under 
('oromdo. 
whale-bird (hwarberd), 71. 1. One of the blue 
petrels of tlie genus Prion, several species of 
which inhabit the southern ocean, p. vittattts, one 
of the best-known, is notable for the expanse of its beak, 
the edges of which are beset with tooth-like processes. 
The name extends to several other oceanic birds which 
% 
Four plates 
of t>aleen, seen 
obliquely from 
f^^^shs 
Whiilebird {Prion vittittusu 
whale-fisher 
gather in multitudes when a whale has been captured, to 
feed upon the offal ; they are chiefly of the petrel and gull 
families. 
2. The tumstone, Strepsilas interpres. Hearnc. 
[Hudson's Bay.] — 3. The red or gray phala- 
rope. Kumleiii. [Labrador.] 
whale-hoat (hwal'bot), n. A long narrow boat, 
sharp at both ends, and fitted for steering with 
an oar as well as with a rudder, used in the 
pursuit of whales, and, from its handy and sea- 
worthy qualities, also for many other purposes. 
It is usually from 20 to 30 feet long. A pair of theae 
boats is commonly carried by ocean passenger- steamers, 
in addition to their heavier boats. 
whalebone (hwarbon), n. and a. [< ME. whaU 
hone, qwalc-hon; < whale^ H- houe^.'] I. n. 1. The 
elastic horny substance which grows in place of 
teeth in the upper jaw of whales of the family Ba- 
Isenidse (hence called whalebone or hone whaks)^ 
forming a series of thin parallel plates from a 
few inches to several feet long; baleen (which 
see). The t£rm is misleading, for the substance is in 
no sense bone, but a kind of horn ; and its 
trade-name whale-fin is equally inaccu- 
rate, for it has nothing to do with the fins 
of the whale. Whalebone grows in sever- 
al hundred close-set parallel plates along 
each side of the upper jaw of the baleen 
whale, and thus in the situation occupied 
by the teeth of ordinary mammals; it is 
entirely shut in by the lips when the mouth 
is closed. Each one of the plates of both 
rows then bends with a strong sweep back- 
ward, and when the mouth is opened 
straightens out, so that there is always 
a heavy fringe on each side of the cavity 
of the mouth, forming an impassable bar- 
rier to the multitudinous small creatures 
which the whale scoops in from the sur- 
face of the sea. The longest baleen plates 
are those of the polar whale, some of 
which may exceed 12 feet in length. The 
plates in different species differ in color 
from a dull grayish -black through various 
streaked or veined colorations to somewhat 
creamy white. Whalebone stands quite 
alone among animal substances in a par- 
ticular combination of lightness, tough- 
ness, flexibility, elasticity, and durability, 
together with such a cleavage (due to the 
straightness of its parallel fibers) that it 
may be split for its whole length to any desired thinness 
of strips. A sulphur-bottom whale has yielded 800 pounds 
of baleen, of which the longest plates were 4 feet in 
length. In the California gray whale the longest bone 
is from 14 to 16 inches, of a light or whitish color, coarse- 
grained, and heavily and xinevenly fringed. The baleen 
of a finback is of a light lead-color streaked with black, 
attaining a length of 2 feet 4 inches and a width of from 
12 to 14 inches, with a fine fringe from 2 to 4 inches long; 
it is somewhat ridged crosswise. That of the shjyp-head- 
ed flnner is entirely white, with a short thin frin^ ; it has 
been found to consist of 270 pairs of plates, the longest be- 
ing 10 inches in length. Whalebone is or has been used 
in the manufacture of a great variety of articles. 
2, Something made of whalebone or baleen ; 
a piece of whalebone prepared for some regu- 
lar use: as, the whalebones of a corset. — 3. 
Specitically, a whalebone riding-whip. 
They're neck and neck ; they're head and head: 
They're stroke for stroke in the running; 
The whalebone whistles, the steel is red, 
No shirking as yet or shunning. 
A. L. Gordon, Visions in the Smoke. 
4t. In the middle ages, ivory from the narwhal, 
walinis, or other sea-creature, or supposed to 
be from such a source. See whale's bone, under 
whaJe'^, n. 
To telle of hir tethe that tryetly were set, 
Alse qwyte it qwem as any qwalle ban. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.X L 3055. 
II. a. Made of or containing whalebone. 
Their ancient ivhalebone stays creaked. 
a. B. Stotce, Oldtown, p. 398. 
Whalebone whale. See I., l, and phrase under whaled. 
whale-brit (hwal'brit), n. Same as brit'^, 2. 
Compare whale'^, «., 1. 
whale-built (hwal'bilt). a. Constructed on the 
model of a whale-boat. 
The Canadian fishing-boats are whale-huilt. Periey. 
whale-calf (hwarkjif), n. The young of the 
whale. Also ealf-whale. 
whale-fin (hwarfin), n. In eom., a plate or 
hnnina of whalel)one; whalebone collectively. 
[Both whale-fin and whalebone are misnomers, due to origi- 
nal ignorance of the source and nature of the material.] 
A duty was imposed upon whale-fins, which, notwith- 
standing the double duty on fins imported by foreigners, 
went far toward the ruin of the Greenland trade. 
5. Dou'ell, Taxes in England, II. 61. 
whalefisht (hwarfish), n. [= D. walrisch = 
OHG. walfisc, MHG. walriseh^ G. waJjisch = 
Icel. hralJislT = Sw. Ban. hvalfjsl-; as whale^ + 
_/(>/(!.] A whale. 
There by be many wlhWefysshes and flyinge fysshes. 
B. Eden, in First Books on America (ed. Arber, p. xxvlii.), 
whale-fisher (hwartish^er), «. A person en- 
gaged in the whale-fishery ; a whaler. (.'. J/. 
Scanuuon, Marine Mammals, p. 211. 
