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

… Apple's white whale these days seems to be developing a car.

—Steven Levy

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

Collins, the only Republican incumbent on the ballot this year in a state won by Kamala Harris, has become a kind of white whale for Democrats. —Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026

But demography is certainly not destiny, because the state has been something of a white whale for Democrats. —Domenico Montanaro, NPR, 13 Mar. 2026

For at least a decade, the quadruple axel jump was figure skating’s white whale. —Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 9 Feb. 2026

His personal white whale is to create a measurement and visualization for team momentum. —Andrew Greif, NBC news, 10 Jan. 2026

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