Meaning of Nantucket sleigh ride | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An instance of the dragging of a whaleboat across the surface of a body of water by a harpooned whale.
   idiomatic
2. An instance of the dragging of a boat (especially a small one) by an aquatic creature or vessel attached to it by a rope or other line.
   broadly, idiomatic

Examples

“If we can fasten a good fish tomorrow when you are with us," said the captain of the New Bedford whaling bark Morning Star to me, "I will try to give you a Nantucket sleigh ride."”

“[The] crew pushed out in a small boat and pierced the whale with a harpoon attached to a rope secured to the boat. Then it was hang on for your life. “A whale barreling along at the surface would take the men on the proverbial Nantucket sleigh ride, a bone-jarring, terrifying and, at times, no doubt exhilarating trip over the waves,” Dolin writes.”

“They said they planned to hook the shark with a gaff and go for a "Nantucket sleigh ride."”

“Still fresh in my mind was the 15-pound striped bass that took me on a miniature Nantucket sleigh ride around Sandy Hook Bay last fall.”

“The only note of caution that I would put down is, look at what happens to modern fishing vessels when they occasionally accidentally catch a modern submarine; now, granted, of course modern submarines are far more powerful in terms of their propulsion systems, and far larger, often massively outmassing the fishing vessels that they capture, so the fishing vessels either end up being dragged under or if they're lucky taken on a bit of a Nantucket sleighride before they cut their lines or the net breaks[…]”

CEFR level