blobber

Noun

blubber (countable and uncountable, plural blubbers)

1. A fatty layer of adipose tissue found immediately beneath the epidermis of whales and other cetaceans (infraorder Cetacea).
   • Though their [the hyena whale or pilot whale's] blubber is very thin, some of these whales will yield you upwards of thirty gallons of oil.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Cetology”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 155
   1. (uncountable) A fatty layer of adipose tissue found in other animals which keeps them warm, especially Arctic animals such as sea lions and Antarctic animals such as penguins.
      • There were hundred of slaughtered seals, and it was evident that, as far as the eye could reach, the work of death had been complete. Still something had occurred to prevent the hunters from securing their rich booty, for huge piles of skins, with their adhering blubber, were scattered over the...1877, Charles W[inslow] Hall, “A Change of Base—Building a Snow-hut—The View from the Berg—A Strange Meeting”, in Adrift in the Ice-fields, Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard; New York, N.Y.: Charles T....
   2. (derogatory, informal, offensive, uncountable) A person's fat tissue, usually when regarded as excessive and unsightly.
      • Are you numbered among the employed yet? I read the unemployment figures and I shudder. You do not have any stored-up blubber to live on.1977 April 23, M. M. B., “Letter from Home”, in Neil Miller, editor, Gay Community News, volume 4, number 43, Boston, Mass.: GCN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16, column 1
   3. (archaic, broadly, countable) A jellyfish (subphylum Medusozoa).
      • You know, Jacob, that the North Seas are full of these animals—you cannot imagine the quantity of them; the sailors call them blubbers, because they are composed of a sort of transparent jelly, but the real name I am told is Medusæ, that is, the learned name.1834, [Frederick Marryat], chapter II, in Jacob Faithful […], volume III, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, page 23
2. (countable, derogatory) An act of crying or weeping freely and noisily.
   • Fassmann gives dolorous clippings from the Leyden Gazette, all in a blubber of tears, according to the then fashion, but full of impertinent curiosity withal.1858, Thomas Carlyle, “In Papa’s Sick-room; Prussian Inspections; End of War”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC...
3. (countable, obsolete) A bubble.

See all 13 meanings of blubber