hulk Hear it!

hulk Definition

hulk (hulk)

noun

    1. Archaic any ship
    2. a big, unwieldy ship
    1. the hull of an old, dismantled ship
    2. such a ship used for storage in a port or, earlier, as a prison
    3. a deserted wreck or ruins
  3. a big, clumsy person or thing

Etymology: ME < OE hulc < ML hulcus < Gr holkas, towed vessel < IE *solkos, a pull, something dragged < base *selk-, to pull > Gr hēlkein, to pull, OE sulh, a plow

intransitive verb

  1. to rise bulkily: usually with up
  2. Dialectal to slouch or lounge about in a heavy, clumsy manner

hulk Synonyms

hulk

n.

  1. A large, unshapely object

    bulk, blob, hunk, chunk, lump, clump, clod, slather*; see also mass 1, part 1.

  2. A wreck

    shell, remains, ruins, shambles, skeleton, frame, hull, dismasted ship, derelict, body; see also wreck 2.

hulk Usage Examples

Object

  • man: And yet she is the woman, and you are a great hulking man!
  • monaco: Of the others in this column reed's hulking monaco.

Converse of object

  • rust: Further along the coast, a small wooden boat battled the waves, dwarfed against the rusting hulk of an abandoned Russian trawler.
  • rot: By the time the rotting hulk landed, people were picking at the planks to find worms to eat.
  • convict: The action ranges from rural Essex to London's prisons and convict hulks; from the wilds of British Columbia to the Australian goldfields.
  • moor: The Dreadnought Seamen's ' Hospital started its life in a hulk moored in the Thames, roughly opposite Billingsgate, for 40 years.

Adjective modifier

  • incredible: Ever since, the odds of anyone successfully rehabilitating this incredible hulk have been the longest in the development business.
  • huge: Scientists have monitored what happens to these huge hulks at the bottom of the cold waters of the North Sea.
  • old: A pair of old wooden hulks bear down upon a defenseless slug!
  • great: Light boats sail swift, tho greater hulks draw deep.
  • massive: Charging straight for them at a slow speed was the massive hulk of a Behemoth.
  • black: From the perimeter fence I could see the sinister black hulks of three submarines, floating in the dockyard.

Modifies a noun

  • hogan: I may even replace my old hulk hogan mug with one of these.

Noun used with modifier

  • prison: After being released from a prison hulk in the Thames he returned to Deeside.
  • coal: Beached in the Falklands by a gale off Cape Horn, she became a coal hulk for five years, then rotted.
  • storage: She was acquired by the company in 1880 for use as a tobacco and general storage hulk at Penang.
  • barge: It might be possible to identify the barge hulk being broken up in this picture of Garrett's Barge Breakers.

Preposition: of

  • ship: Here the family lived in the hulk of an old ship.
  • building: All doors, windows, furniture, and fittings had been taken leaving just hulks of buildings.
  • man: Take a look at the Top 100 Men Sex Appeal Rating David is a brooding hulk of a man.
hulk Quotes

The old man puffed into sight like a venerable battlewagon pressing up over the horizon. First a smudge of smoke, then the long cigar, then the familiar, stoop-shouldered hulk that a generation has come to know as the silhouette of greatness.

—Time