blubber
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See also: Blubber
English
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈblʌbɚ/
- Rhymes: -ʌbə(ɹ)
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Etymology 1
From Middle English bluber (“bubbling water; foaming waves”), of likely onomatopoeic origin. The verb is derived from the noun. See blob, bleb.
Alternative forms
Noun
blubber (countable and uncountable, plural blubbers)
- A fatty layer of adipose tissue found immediately beneath the epidermis.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXXII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 155:
- Though their blubber is very thin, some of these whales will yield you upwards of thirty gallons of oil.
- 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
- It[Oil] was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.
- Fatty tissue.
- Synonym: adipose tissue
- 1977 April 23, M. M. B., “Letter From Home”, in Gay Community News, page 16:
- 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.
- The thick coat of fat worn by many Arctic animals, such as sea lions, and Antarctic animals, such as penguins; used to insulate warmth in the animal's body.
- 1877, Charles W. Hall, chapter XVIII, in Adrift in the Ice-Fields, Boston: Lee and Shepard:
- 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.
- (obsolete) A bubble.
Derived terms
Descendants
- → German: Blubber
Translations
fatty layer under epidermis
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fatty tissue — see also adipose tissue
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coat of fat of Antarctic/Arctic animal
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Verb
blubber (third-person singular simple present blubbers, present participle blubbering, simple past and past participle blubbered)
- To make noises or broken words while crying.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:weep
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- But no more of this blubbering now, we are going a-whaling, and there is plenty of that yet to come.
- 1918, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, The Outside of the House:
- They knew that the wall stood and the house was saved, and old Sam was blubbering over old Captain Joe Dickson lying spent almost to death on the veranda
- 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Feud”, in Open House; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, →ISBN, page 4:
- Recoiling from the serpent head
Of fate, you blubber in surprise.
- (archaic, transitive) To swell or disfigure (the face) with weeping; to wet with tears.
- 1718, Matthew Prior, A Better Answer:
- Dear Cloe, how blubbered is that pretty face!
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC:
- [S]he hastily retired, taking with her her little girl, whose eyes were all over blubbered at the melancholy news she heard of Jones, who used to call her his little wife, and not only gave her many playthings, but spent whole hours in playing with her himself.
Derived terms
Translations
to make noises while crying
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to swell or disfigure (the face) with weeping; to wet with tears
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Etymology 2
Noun
blubber (plural blubbers)
- One who blubs or weeps.
- 2011 April 13, “Nikki Sanderson: from the Street to the stage”, in Evening Standard:
- 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.
- 2022 October 24, “The Repair Shop’s Will Kirk and Antiques Road Trip’s Christina Trevanion become The Travelling Auctioneers in idyllic new BBC One series”, in BBC:
- 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!
Further reading
blubber on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “blubber”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
Dutch
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Etymology 1
Noun
blubber m (uncountable)
- mud, or anything of similar consistency and slipperiness
- blubber, fatty tissue
Derived terms
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
blubber
- inflection of blubberen:
German
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Verb
blubber
- inflection of blubbern: