white whale

noun

1

: beluga sense 2

2

or less commonly great white whale : something (such as a goal or object) that is obsessively pursued

It was the old man's white whale, the holy grail shining at the end of the dream, on and off the rails, as he chased scripts, directors, and movie stars of the proper magnitude.

—Rich Cohen

For drug makers, developing the first Alzheimer's therapy has long been seen as the great white whale: the toughest challenge and biggest opportunity.

—Robert Weisman

Illustration of white whale

• white whale 1

Examples of white whale in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Aside from Howard Hughes, Enzo Ferrari was Mann’s white whale: a fastidious man who was excellent at his job and attempted to bury—yet was consumed by—overwhelming emotional torment. —Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 20 June 2025

The agency’s ruthless director Katherine Brunt (Katee Sackhoff) realizes this might be her only shot at catching her white whale, but her roster of immediately available mercenaries in Bangkok is limited. —Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 7 May 2025

By 1992, the European Cup had become Barcelona’s white whale. —Nick Miller, New York Times, 28 May 2025

Will Paris Saint-Germain finally get their hands on their European white whale? —Michael Cox, New York Times, 30 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

(sense 2) after the white sperm whale obsessively hunted by Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick (1851)

First Known Use

1635, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for white whale

• abigail
• cottontail
• countervail
• fingernail
• martingale
• mesoscale
• microscale
• monorail
• nanoscale
• ponytail
• swallowtail
• wensleydale