Word.ws English Dictionary

whaling

/ˈweɪlɪŋ/

whaling noun: the practice of hunting whales. Also the present participle and gerund of whale.

Noun

whaling (countable and uncountable, plural whalings)

  1. The practice of hunting whales.
    • In 1946, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established to regulate whale stocks and “make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry”. It attempted to impose quotas and move the industry toward something more sustainable. This proved difficult, so the IWC simply gave up...2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 02 Nov 2025
  2. The practice of spotting whales.
    Synonyms:
    whale watching
  3. (informal) A beating.
  4. A form of highly personalized cyberattack that targets a senior business executive.
    • Whaling attacks typically take specific responsibilities of these executive roles into consideration, using focused messaging to trick the victim.2017, Prithviraj Gohel, Cyber Attacks: are we really secure?

Verb

whaling

  1. (informal) physically beating.

Also used as

whaling is also the present participle and gerund of whale.

whaling meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

whaling in Hindi

व्हेलिंग, व्हेल शिकार

whaling in Tamil

திமிங்கிலம் வேட்டையாடுதல், திமிங்கில வேட்டை, திமிங்கிலம் வேட்டையாடல்

whaling in Marathi

व्हेलिंग, व्हेल शिकार

whaling in Urdu

وہیلنگ, وہیل کا شکار, وہیل شکار
More languagesFewer languages
whaling in Bengali
তিমি শিকার, তিমি শিকার করা
whaling in Telugu
తిమింగలం వేట, తిమింగలం వేటాడటం, తిమింగల వేట
whaling in Malayalam
തിമിംഗല വേട്ട, തിമിംഗലങ്ങൾ വേട്ടയാടൽ, തിമിംഗലവേട്ട
whaling in Kannada
ತಿಮಿಂಗಿಲ ಬೇಟೆಯಾಡುವುದು
whaling in Punjabi
ਵ੍ਹੇਲਿੰਗ
whaling in Gujarati
વ્હેલિંગ, વ્હેલ શિકાર
whaling in Odia
ତିମି ଶିକାର, ହ୍ୱେଲିଂ, ତିମି ଶିକାର କରିବା
whaling in Nepali
ह्वेलिङ, व्हेलिंग, व्हेलिङ
whaling in Arabic
صَيْد اَلْحِيتَان ṣayd al-ḥītān
whaling in Vietnamese
săn bắt cá voi, sự đánh cá voi, nghề đánh cá voi

Examples of whaling in a sentence

  • There was a miniature of a whaling ship in a glass bottle over the mantelpiece.
  • I saw her whaling away at her detractors.
  • The wrench wouldn’t budge, even though Tony was just whaling on it with a big old sledge hammer.

All 21 example sentences with whaling

Synonyms of whaling

Forms of whaling

pluralwhalings

Words formed from whaling

Phrases with whaling

Words that rhyme with whaling

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about whaling

What does whaling mean?
Whaling means the practice of hunting whales.
What is whaling in Hindi?
Whaling in Hindi is व्हेलिंग, व्हेल शिकार. See Whaling meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is whaling?
Whaling can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce whaling?
Whaling is pronounced /ˈweɪlɪŋ/.
What is the plural of whaling?
The plural of whaling is whalings.

Words near whaling in the dictionary

  1. whalewatchers
  2. whalewatching
  3. Whaley
  4. Whaley Bridge
  5. Whaleys
  6. whaling
  7. whaling away
  8. whaling on
  9. whaling station
  10. whaling stations
  11. whalings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whaling (page history and authors); whaling (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whaling (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whaling.wav.

Cite this entry: “whaling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whaling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.