white whale
/waɪt ˈweɪl/ noun
Forms white whales
- noun Synonym of beluga (“the beluga whale, Delphinapterus leucas, a cetacean found in the Arctic Ocean”)
- noun Any whale of the family Monodontidae, which comprises the beluga whales and narwhals (Monodon monoceros), and some extinct species.
- noun An obsession, a monomania.
- noun (collectible card games) A printing plate, used to manufacture a particular sports card, that is then issued as a collectible itself.
Synonyms
Etymology
From white + whale. The figurative senses refer to the novel Moby-Dick (1851) by the American writer Herman Melville (1819–1891), in which Captain Ahab relentlessly pursues a rare albino sperm whale.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “white whale”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details