• vt. 猛揍；使惨败
• vi. 捕鲸
• n. 鲸；巨大的东西
• n. (Whale)人名；(英)惠尔

来自古英语hwael,大型海洋生物，鲸，海象等，后用于指鲸。

whale

whale: [OE] Whale comes from a prehistoric Germanic *khwal-, which also produced Swedish and Danish hval and the wal- of German walfisch ‘whale’. The expression a whale of, meaning ‘no end of’, originated in the USA towards the end of the 19th century.

whale (n.)

Old English hwæl "whale," also "walrus," from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (cognates: Old Saxon hwal, Old Norse hvalr, hvalfiskr, Swedish val, Middle Dutch wal, walvisc, Dutch walvis, Old High German wal, German Wal), from PIE *(s)kwal-o- (cognates: Latin squalus "a kind of large sea fish"). Phrase whale of a "excellent or large example" is c. 1900, student slang. Whale-oil attested from mid-15c.

whale (v.2)

"beat, whip severely," 1790, possibly a variant of wale (v.) "to mark with 'wales' or stripes" (early 15c.), from wale (n.). Related: Whaled; whaling.

whale (v.1)

"pursue the business of whale-fishing," 1700, from whale (n.). Whale-fishing is attested from 1570s.

1. The blue whale is the largest living thing on the planet.

蓝鲸是地球上体型最大的生物。

来自柯林斯例句

2. I had a whale of a time in Birmingham.

我在伯明翰度过了一段非常快乐的时光。

来自柯林斯例句

3. Norwegian whalers said yesterday they had harpooned a female minke whale.

挪威的捕鲸人说昨天他们用捕鲸叉捕获了一头雌性小须鲸。

来自柯林斯例句

4. Whale-watching has become a growth leisure industry.

观鲸业已经成为一个快速发展的休闲产业。

来自柯林斯例句

5. A whale is a fish. True or false?

鲸鱼是鱼，对还是错？

来自《权威词典》