Meaning of Blubber | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A fatty layer of adipose tissue found immediately beneath the epidermis of whales and other cetaceans (infraorder Cetacea).
   countable, uncountable
2. One who blubs (“cries or weeps freely and noisily”); a blubberer.
3. 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.
   uncountable
4. A person's fat tissue, usually when regarded as excessive and unsightly.
   derogatory, informal, offensive, uncountable
5. A jellyfish (subphylum Medusozoa).
   archaic, broadly, countable
6. An act of crying or weeping freely and noisily.
   countable, derogatory
7. A bubble.
   countable, obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“There was a most Monstrous Whale: / He had no Skin, he had no Tail. / When he tried to Spout, that Great Big Lubber, / The best he could do was Jiggle his Blubber.”

“The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today's prices). It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.”

“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 ice, and near one was planted firmly in the floe a boat-hook, with a small flag at the top.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“[T]hree of the boys, of whom Mr. Hector was sometimes one, used to come in the morning as his humble attendants, and carry him [Johnson] to school. […] The purfly, sand-blind lubber and blubber, with his open mouth, and face of bruised honeycomb; yet already dominant, imperial, irresistible!”

“It was really emotional. I am a blubber at the best of times. I had only been there for 18 months and found it upsetting so it was really hard for the people that had been there for 18 years.”

“As an auctioneer, you tend to come into people's lives when they are going through an awful lot, and it is very difficult not to get emotionally involved. You feel responsible for helping them to achieve their goal, and that's quite a weight to carry on your shoulders. I am a blubber at the best of times – it doesn't take a lot to set me off!”

CEFR level