hulk
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: bodybuilding
hobbies
lifestyle
nautical
sports
transport
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, *hulikaz (“something hollowed or dug out, cavity”), equivalent to hole/hollow + -ock. Cognate with Old High German holcho (“cargo or transport ship, barge”) (whence Middle High German holche, modern German Holk), Old Norse hólkr (“metal tube, ring”), dialectal Norwegian holk, hylke (“wooden barrel”), Middle English holken (“to dig out, gouge”).
Relation to Medieval Latin hulcus (“ship”) is uncertain, as Old English may have borrowed from Latin or vice versa, but the form holcas rather points to borrowing from Ancient Greek ὁλκάς (holkás, “ship being towed; cargo ship, ship used for trading, holcad”) (compare
Ancient Greek ἕλκω (hélkō, “to drag”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to draw, pull”)). See more at the Old English entry hulc.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Base: hole
Affixes: -ock
Inflected forms:
form: hulks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: hulke
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: hulks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: hulking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: hulked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: hulked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A large ship used for transportation; (more generally) a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: Light boates ſaile ſwift, though greater hulkes draw deepe.
Their ſhips thus ſet on ſhore (to fruſtrate their deſire) / Thoſe Daniſh Hulkes became the food of Engliſh fire.
gloss: A non-functional but floating ship, usually stripped of equipment and rigging, and often put to other uses such as accommodation or storage.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: They could see the lighthouse shining on Quarantine Island, and the green lights on the old coal hulks.
A sister ship, originally the Patriotic, and later renamed Lady Leinster and finally the Lady Connaught, was badly damaged by a mine between Liverpool and Belfast; the British & Irish Steam Packet Company next brought [sic] the hulk back from the Belfast Steamship Company and converted her into a livestock carrier.
gloss: A large structure with a dominating presence.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: The sturdy trunk of Central Park Tower is rising nearby – a great glass hulk that will soon steal the crown for the most vertiginous residences on the planet.
Among its findings, the report says: "In recent years we have seen more stations transformed from run-down Victorian hulks, or spartan bus-sheltered platforms, into places that people can take pride in, feel comfortable in using, and which are fulfilling more of their wider potential.
gloss: A big (and possibly clumsy) person.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
gloss: A big (and possibly clumsy) person.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
gloss: To reduce (a ship) to a non-functional hulk.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: In Fremantle very few vessels appear to have been reduced to hulks, and only one figure head Samuel Plimsoll, [Fig. 62] survives from a sailing ship hulked in 1904. [...] The Sarah Burnyeat was hulked in Albany in 1886, [...]
No further additions were made to this group, and by 1729 the Rank was extinct (the last to be struck was the Ludlow, which had been hulked in 1719).
gloss: To temporarily house (goods, people, etc.) in such a hulk.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To move (a large, hulking body).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: This hearty, willing man had hulked his 354 pounds about the world, faithfully and deftly running presidential errands in Cuba, Panama, the Philippines, Rome, Russia, and Japan and China.
A man with four children crowding like saplings around him whistles to wake up the elephant seal who has hulked his impossible body onto the beach.
Hadrian hulked his mass over the spot where the children had disappeared. 'You are still here, aren't you? I can feel your presence.' He walked forwards and his giant strides came down on the children. They scrambled out the way, [...]
gloss: To be a hulk, that is, a large, hulking, and often imposing presence.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: After one trip with them, he decided he couldn't stand to have bodyguards hulking around him wherever he went. He felt like an idiot walking along the aisles of the supermarket with eight lumpy men standing around [...]
As the occupants stepped out, he hulked at them menacingly and asked them the traditional question. 'Can Ah help youse?'
An oven hulked in the middle of the room, detached from everything, and a gathering of objects sat in the corner: a rolled rug with gnarled tassels, a chair from the bar downstairs that was missing a leg, a box [...]
The remains of an old bar hulked in the center of the room. As it was draped with more dusty protective cloth, she assumed Hopkins had intended to restore it to whatever its former glory might have been.
The whoosh pushed John down, and as he fell, he turned to see the machine hulking over him, just meters away. “Shit!” he cried [...]
gloss: Of a (large) person: to act or move slowly and clumsily.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: After a while he hulked up to where Erland sat, putting his hairy fist on the table and watching the boy work.
Instead he hulked his way towards Kruger again as the crowd ooohd and aaahd at the prowess. The two men were about equal in height, but Matusak outweighed Kruger by about fifty pounds.
Derived words: hulkish
hulksome
hulky
sheer hulk
hulking
hulkingly
hulk off
hulk out
Translations:
lang: Basque
word: gizonkote
lang: Dutch
word: vleesklomp
lang: French
word: lourdaud
lang: French
word: rustre
lang: German
word: Bulle
lang: German
word: Riese
lang: German
word: Hüne
lang: Italian
word: omaccione
lang: Macedonian
word: ме́чка
roman: méčka
lang: Portuguese
word: matulão
lang: Spanish
word: socotroco
lang: Spanish
word: zocotroco
lang: Swedish
word: kluns
lang: Swedish
word: klumpeduns