hulk

[ huhlk ]
See synonyms for hulk on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the body of an old or dismantled ship.

  2. a ship specially built to serve as a storehouse, prison, etc., and not for sea service.

  1. a clumsy-looking or unwieldy ship or boat.

  2. a bulky or unwieldy person, object, or mass.

  3. the shell of a wrecked, burned-out, or abandoned vehicle, building, or the like.

verb (used without object)
  1. to loom in bulky form; appear as a large, massive bulk (often followed by up): The bus hulked up suddenly over the crest of the hill.

  2. British Dialect. to lounge, slouch, or move in a heavy, loutish manner.

Origin of hulk

1
before 1000; Middle English hulke,Old English hulc; perhaps <Medieval Latin hulcus<Greek holkás trading vessel, originally, towed ship

Words Nearby hulk

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hulk in a sentence

  • But as no junk-man came, and as no one could be found to care for its now sadly battered hulk, its good riddance became a problem.

    The Real Latin Quarter | F. Berkeley Smith
  • A few minutes before she had been a stately three-masted frigate; now she was a helpless hulk.

  • You've put in good work to-night all right, and saved this old hulk from drifting into harbour.

    Menotah | Ernest G. Henham
  • It was on such a night that a great black hulk moved like a sable monster through the waters off the coast of Cuba.

  • She is a dirty commonplace hulk, packed with men in soiled clothes, no longer the radiant white ship of our vision.

British Dictionary definitions for hulk

hulk

/ (hʌlk) /


noun
  1. the body of an abandoned vessel

  2. derogatory a large or unwieldy vessel

  1. derogatory a large ungainly person or thing

  2. (often plural) the frame or hull of a ship, used as a storehouse, etc, or (esp in 19th-century Britain) as a prison

verb
  1. (intr) British informal to move clumsily

  2. (intr often foll by up) to rise massively

Origin of hulk

1
Old English hulc, from Medieval Latin hulca, from Greek holkas barge, from helkein to tow

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012