Word.ws English Dictionary

very like a whale

very like a whale adjective: highly improbable; not to be believed.

Adjective

very like a whale (not comparable)

  1. (humorous, slang) Highly improbable; not to be believed.
    • 'On your way to dine with Sir William Ayr, indeed! Very like a whale that, captain, but not quite so large, you understand!' the sergeant said jeeringly.1859, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, page 541

Origin of very like a whale

From an exchange between Hamlet and Polonius (discussing the shape of a cloud) in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

Questions about very like a whale

What does very like a whale mean?
Very like a whale means highly improbable; not to be believed.
What part of speech is very like a whale?
Very like a whale is an adjective.

Words near very like a whale in the dictionary

  1. very large crude carriers
  2. very large scale integration
  3. very less
  4. very light
  5. very lights
  6. very like a whale
  7. very long-chain
  8. very low mass star
  9. very low mass stars
  10. very much
  11. Very pistol

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: very like a whale (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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