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hulk

Pronunciation: /hʌlk/

The English word “hulk” has 11 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A large ship used for transportation; (more generally) a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre.
  2. A non-functional but floating ship, usually stripped of equipment and rigging, and often put to other uses such as accommodation or storage.
  3. A large structure with a dominating presence.
  4. A big (and possibly clumsy) person.
  5. An excessively muscled person.

verb

  1. To reduce (a ship) to a non-functional hulk.
  2. To temporarily house (goods, people, etc.) in such a hulk.
  3. To move (a large, hulking body).
  4. To be a hulk, that is, a large, hulking, and often imposing presence.
  5. Of a (large) person: to act or move slowly and clumsily.
  6. To remove the entrails of; to disembowel.

Etymology

From Middle English hulk, hulke, holke (“hut; shed for hogs; type of ship; husk, pod, shell; large, clumsy person; a giant”) (probably reinforced by Middle Dutch hulk, huelc, and Middle Low German hulk, holk, hollek (“freighter, cargo ship, barge”)), from Old English hulc (“light ship; heavy, clumsy ship; cabin, hovel, hut”), from Proto-West Germanic *huluk, *hulik, from Proto-Germanic *hulukaz,…

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