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

Come to think of it, László's model looks very much like a big white whale that happened to swallow a church. —Tom Gliatto, People.com, 3 Jan. 2025

Gruden became the white whale Vols fans longed to catch throughout multiple wayward searches. —Blake Toppmeyer, The Tennessean, 19 Sep. 2024

The story of Captain Ahab’s obsessive quest to take revenge on the white whale who bit off his leg is an American classic and has been read in countless classrooms since its publication in 1851. —Julia Binswanger, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Jan. 2025

And if not either of those two sluggers, then what? Bregman has morphed into an outsized white whale for legions of Tigers followers on social media. —Cody Stavenhagen, The Athletic, 7 Jan. 2025

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