blubber

[ bluhb-er ]

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)

1. to weep noisily and without restraint:

   Stop blubbering and tell me what's wrong.

verb (used with object)

1. to say, especially incoherently, while weeping:

   The child seemed to be blubbering something about a lost ring.

2. to contort or disfigure (the features) with weeping.

adjective

1. disfigured with blubbering; blubbery:

   She dried her blubber eyes.

2. fatty; swollen; puffed out (usually used in combination):

   thick, blubber lips; blubber-faced.

blubber

/ ˈblʌbə /

verb

1. to sob without restraint
2. to utter while sobbing
3. tr to make (the face) wet and swollen or disfigured by crying

noun

1. 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
2. informal.
   excessive and flabby body fat
3. the act or an instance of weeping without restraint
4. See jellyfish
   an informal name for jellyfish

adjective

1. often in combination swollen or fleshy

   blubber-faced

   blubber-lips

blubber

/ blŭb′ər /

1. 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.

Derived Forms

• ˈblubberer, noun

Other Words From

• blubber·er noun
• blubber·ing·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of blubber¹

1250–1300; Middle English bluber bubble, bubbling water, entrails, whale oil; apparently imitative

Word History and Origins

Origin of blubber¹

C12: perhaps from Low German blubbern to bubble , of imitative origin

Example Sentences

They were hunted incessantly for their meat and blubber, which could be turned into oil and used in a variety of industrial products like lamps.

From Popular-Science

The settlers observed the Inuit hunting seals and then heating their homes by burning blubber, eating the meat—surviving.

From Outside Online

A sea otter’s secret to staying warm isn’t in thick stores of blubber.

From Science News For Students

Sea otters are also the smallest marine mammals, which means they have a larger surface area relative to their body size through which to lose heat, and they lack the insulating blubber found in their more massive relatives.

From Popular-Science

Sea otters’ secret to staying warm isn’t in thick stores of blubber.

From Science News

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders blubber about racism while cynically scheming for a permanent demographic majority.

From The Daily Beast

Scott does not come off as a conventionally conceived gigglebox made of blubber.

From The Daily Beast

Besides a few crumbs, it contained a small lump of narwhal blubber and a little packet.

From Project Gutenberg

Then he would burst rudely into my solitude and while I sopped cold water over his injured members, he would blubber.

From Project Gutenberg

Fat Boy's two hundred and eighty-odd pounds were drooped over his chair like the blubber of an exhausted, beach-stranded whale.

From Project Gutenberg

The faithful swallow "squid," and become a mass of blubber; the sceptics feed on solid flesh, and are thin as tigers.

From Project Gutenberg

Robinson began to blubber the moment George took his hand, spite of the money lost.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• fat