Category:Hulk

Hulk, n. Etym: [OE. hulke a heavy ship, AS. hulc a light, swift ship; akin to D. hulk a ship of burden, G. holk, OHG. holcho; perh. fr. LL. holcas, Gr. Wolf, Holcad.]

1. The body of a ship or decked vessel of any kind; esp., the body of an old vessel laid by as unfit for service. "Some well-timbered hulk." Spenser.

2. A heavy ship of clumsy build. Skeat.

3. Anything bulky or unwieldly. Shak. Shear hulk, an old ship fitted with an apparatus to fix or take out the masts of a ship. -- The hulks, old or dismasted ships, formerly used as prisons. [Eng.] Dickens.

hulk Hulk, v. t. Etym: [Cf. MLG. holken to hollow out, Sw. hålka.]

Defn: To take out the entrails of; to disembowel; as, to hulk a hare. [R.] Beau. & Fl.