white whales
Pale northern cetaceans
White whales are elusive obsessions—goals pursued relentlessly despite the cost.
The phrase comes from Melville's *Moby-Dick*, in which Captain Ahab destroys himself chasing the whale that took his leg.
A white whale is usually something specific and personal: Finding that first-edition Hemingway has become my white whale.
The term can also refer to the beluga, an actual white-skinned whale of Arctic waters.
- belugaWhite Arctic cetacean
- arcticOf extreme northern cold
- cetaceanAquatic mammal order
- paleLacking color intensity
- porpoisesSmall toothed oceanic mammals
leviathan · scrimshaw · Moby Dick · call me Ishmael · marine · polar expeditions · ambergris · aquatic · Ahab · blubbers · baleen · obsession · blowhole · eye · harpooner · sea ice · fin · unattainable
white whaleskiller whales
Large predatory dolphins
pilot whales · gray whales · spotted dolphins · blue whales · orcas
white whalessure things
Guaranteed outcomes
low-hanging fruit · slam dunks · foregone conclusions · gimmes · no-brainers
white, whale, whiter, whitest, whiten, whiteness, whitening, whitened, whites