whaler
/ˈweɪlə
/noun
1A whaling ship.On the morning of 11 February 1944, off the Norwegian coast, Stubborn sighted a convoy of seven ships escorted by four trawlers, a whaler and an aircraft....
- This attracted whalers and fishing vessels, as well as the natural deep water which was a suitable harbour to sea vessels on voyage around Cape of Good Hope.
- Cold-stiff hands and aching shoulders hauled on the guys tied to the fore and aft cleats of the whaler until it was drawn back on board the ship.
1.1A seaman engaged in whaling.Back in colonial times, Spanish whaler José Manuel jumped ship in New Zealand and, as was the custom of the time, took several wives....
- However, the island's desolation was offset by whalers who came aboard from the ships Emma Jane and Roswell King.
- According to local legend, the killer whales would even guide the tiny whale boats out to the hunt so that the whalers could harpoon and lance the harassed animal.
2Any of a number of large slender-bodied sharks:
- A shark that typically occurs inshore and is sometimes found in rivers (genus Carcharhinus, family Carcharhinidae), including the Australasian C. brachyurus. another term for blue shark.
- Make no mistake - makos, hammerheads, threshers, tigers, whites, whalers and six-gilled sharks all go over 1000 lb, and some of them with ease.
- On calm days, dive trips go to the windward side of the island to search for large schools of pelagic fish: bronze whalers, hammerheads, mantas and sometimes oceanic white tips.
3Australian /NZ informal A tramp, especially one who follows the course of a river.A whaler is a bushman who is on the loaf....
- Willoughby, who was travelling loose, was a whaler.
- They were so apt to lie about the size of the ‘whales’ they caught that a generic name -- whaler -- for this class of unemployable traveller came into being.
