blubber
Use Blubber in a sentence
ər noun
1.
Zoology. the fat layer between the skin and muscle of whales and other cetaceans, from which oil is made.
2.
excess body fat.
3.
an act of weeping noisily and without restraint.
verb (used without object)
4.
to weep noisily and without restraint: Stop blubbering and tell me what's wrong.
verb (used with object)
5.
to say, especially incoherently, while weeping: The child seemed to be blubbering something about a lost ring.
6.
to contort or disfigure (the features) with weeping.
00:10
Blubber
is always a great word to know.
So is bird. Does it mean:
| warm-blooded vertebrate with feathers, wings, scaly legs and beak which bear young in shelled eggs |
| cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates with gills, often have fins and elongated body covered with scales |
adjective
7.
disfigured with blubbering; blubbery: She dried her blubber eyes.
8.
fatty; swollen; puffed out (usually used in combination): thick, blubber lips; blubber-faced.
Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English bluber bubble, bubbling water, entrails, whale oil; apparently imitative
1250–1300; Middle English bluber bubble, bubbling water, entrails, whale oil; apparently imitative
Related forms
blub·ber·er, noun
blub·ber·ing·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To blubber
Collins
World English Dictionary
blubber (ˈblʌbə) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —vb | |
| 1. | to sob without restraint |
| 2. | to utter while sobbing |
| 3. | (tr) to make (the face) wet and swollen or disfigured by crying |
| —n | |
| 4. | a thick insulating layer of fatty tissue below the skin of aquatic mammals such as the whale: used by man as a source of oil |
| 5. | informal excessive and flabby body fat |
| 6. | the act or an instance of weeping without restraint |
| 7. | (Austral) an informal name for jellyfish |
| —adj | |
| 8. | (often in combination) swollen or fleshy: blubber-faced; blubber-lips |
| [C12: perhaps from Low German blubbern to | |
| 'blubberer | |
| —n | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
blubber
late 14c., blober "a bubble," probably echoic of bubbling water. Original notion of "bubbling, foaming" survives in the figurative meaning "to cry" (c.1400). Meaning "whale fat" first attested 1660s; earlier it was used in ref. to jellyfish (c.1600).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
| blubber (blŭb'ər) Pronunciation Key
The thick layer of fat between the skin and the muscle layers of whales and other marine mammals. It insulates the animal from heat loss and serves as a food reserve. |
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Example sentences
The nausea surrounded her, six inches of rancid blubber through which she had to breathe.
Once close enough to a whale, the researchers work from an inflatable boat to collect small samples of skin and blubber.
The largest animal ever to have lived, the blue whale is a marvel of bone and blubber, blowhole and baleen-in immense proportions.
No evidence of broken bones or trauma in the blubber layers was noted.
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