hulks

Noun

hulk (plural hulks)

1. (archaic) A large ship used for transportation; (more generally) a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre.
   • Light boates ſaile ſwift, though greater hulkes draw deepe.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609...
2. (broadly) A non-functional but floating ship, usually stripped of equipment and rigging, and often put to other uses such as accommodation or storage.
   • They could see the lighthouse shining on Quarantine Island, and the green lights on the old coal hulks.1918 June, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Prelude”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, chapter 3, page 8
3. (figuratively) A large structure with a dominating presence.
   • The sturdy trunk of Central Park Tower is rising nearby – a great glass hulk that will soon steal the crown for the most vertiginous residences on the planet.2019 June 1, Oliver Wainwright, “Super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive: the ‘pencil towers’ of New York’s super-rich”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media...
4. (figuratively) A big (and possibly clumsy) person.
   1. (figuratively) An excessively muscled person.

See all 14 meanings of hulk