Noun

(en noun)

Any of several species of large sea mammals of the order Cetacea.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.

(figuratively) Something, or someone, that is very large.

* 1920 September, “A Reformed Free Lance” (pseudonym), “Doctoring a Sick Encyclopedia”, in The Writer , Volume XXXII, Number 9, page 131:

It was a whale of a job. It took two months, and the fair blush of youth off my cheeks.

* 1947 May 19, John Chamberlain, “Will Clayton and his Problem”, in , page 120:

But when it comes to his business life and business career, is not as other men; he is such a whale of a lot better that it suggests a qualitative as well as a quantitative difference.

(gambling) (In a casino) a person who routinely bets at the maximum limit allowable.

* 2003 , Jeff Wuorio, How to Buy and Sell (Just About) Everything ,

These are often no-limit games as maximum bets cramp a whale ’s style.

* 2004 , Norm Clarke, Vegas Confidential: Norm! Sin City's Ace Insider 1,000 Naked Truths, Hot Spots and Cool Stuff ,

A handful of the richest whales routinely play for $200,000 a hand. Australian media mogul Kerry Packer not only regularly bets that much, but has plunked down $200,000 bets for the dealer as a form of a tip.

* 2008', Deke Castleman, '''''Whale Hunt in the Desert ,

The high roller who had the most ferocious reputation for trying to run the business of the casinos where he played, before he died on December 26, 2006, was Kerry Packer. In the casino world, Packer was the Prince of Whales .

Noun

(en noun)

One who hunts whales; a person employed in the whaling industry.

* 1890 , , XL, 511,

For a whaler?s wife to have been “?round the Cape” half a dozen times, or even more, was nothing extraordinary.

* 1986 June 5, Jeremy Cherfas, What price whales?'', '' , page 36,

Whalers' have always overexploited their stocks, driving them to commercial extinction.American ' whalers , operating at first from the coast and later in sea-going boats, took about 200 000 right whales in addition to humpbacks and grays.

* 2001 , Lawrence J. Cunningham, Janice J. Beaty, A History of Guam , page 170,

The whalers' brought a new way of life. They brought a chance for travel. Many Chamorros traveled to London and the United States. Over eight hundred Chamorro ' whalers settled in Honolulu.

A seagoing vessel used for hunting whales.

* 1863 , , Sylvia?s Lovers , v.

But o? Thursday t? Resolution, first whaler back this season, came in port.

* 1995 , Robert F. Rogers, Destiny?s Landfall: A History of Guam , page 98,

The log of the Emily Morgan , an American whaler that visited Guam many times, described Spanish control:.

* 2001 , Arabella McIntyre-Brown, Liverpool: The First 1,000 years , page 79,

But the Golden Lion'' was ambushed by a Naval frigate thinking that a whaler?s''' crew would be useful pressed men. The '''whaler?s''' crew didn?t agree, and there was a bloody skirmish on shore between the press gang and the crew of the ''Golden Lion'' which caused such a scandal that from then on ' whalers? men were exempt from conscription.

One who whales (flogs or beats).

(slang) A large, strong person.

(slang) Something of unusually great size, a whopper, a whacker.

(Australia) Any shark of the family Carcharhinidae; a requiem shark.

* 1997 , John Ernest Randall, Gerald R Allen, Roger C. Steene, Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef , 2nd Edition, page 17,

The whalers (or requiem sharks) are one of the largest and best known family of sharks. Worldwide there are 48 species in 12 genera. However, relatively few species are on the Great Barrier Reef.

* 2003 , Mark Thornley, Veda Dante, Peter Wilson, Action Guide: Surfing Australia , Tuttle Publishing, HK, page 264,

The whaler shark family, which includes the grey reef shark (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos''),silvertip (''Carcharhinus albimarginatus''), bull shark (''Carcharhinus leucas'') and bronze whaler (''Carcharhinus brachyurus ) are fast moving, territorial and have bitten divers snd surfers in the past.

* 2008 , Alan Murphy, Justin Flynn, Olivia Pozzan, Paul Harding, Queensland & the Great Barrier Reef , 5th Edition, Lonely Planet, page 219,

You can also take a dip with lemon, whaler and other nonpredatory sharks.

(Australian slang, dated) A sundowner; one who cruises about.

* 1893 August 12, ,

the nomad, “the whaler ,” it is who will find the new order hostile to his vested interest of doing nothing.