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

Warning: The following contains spoilers from Season 2, Episode 1 of Tracker. Related Stories Tracker Shake-Up: [Spoiler] Out Ahead of Season 2 (Exclusive) Why the Tracker Team Isn’t Thinking About Spinoffs (Yet) CBS‘ Tracker just introduced Colter Shaw’s white whale. —Ryan Schwartz, TVLine, 13 Oct. 2024

People always ask me what my vintage white whale is. —Margaux Anbouba, Vogue, 10 Oct. 2024

Most of my friends are on their fourth round, but there are a few white whales left — Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, Spike Lee, the legends. —Mikey O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Oct. 2024

My white whale at this point would be Denzel Washington. —Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Sep. 2024

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