whaling

• IPA^(key): /ˈweɪlɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophones: wailing, waling
• Rhymes: -eɪlɪŋ

whaling (countable and uncountable, plural whalings)

1. The practice of hunting whales.
   • 2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     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 and imposed a moratorium on whaling altogether. Some countries flounced out in a huff; others had never joined in the first place.

2. The practice of spotting whales.
3. (informal) A beating.
4. (computing) A form of highly personalized cyberattack that targets a senior business executive.
   • 2017, Prithviraj Gohel, Cyber Attacks: are we really secure?:

     Whaling attacks typically take specific responsibilities of these executive roles into consideration, using focused messaging to trick the victim.

• (spotting of whales): whale watching

• mallemaroking

whaling

1. present participle and gerund of whale