Meanings
alternative like kicking a dead whale down the beach
- slangusuallysimile; process; simile; processVery slow and difficult.
“How’s it going?” I asked. ¶ “Swimmingly, man. Like kicking dead whales down the beach.”
1998 April, Mark Fabi, “Wall Street Walpurgisnacht” (chapter 3), in Wyrm, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 651 more example
I have a full backup, but restoring 213 MB of data from one oppy to another with a single drive, even using dd and big packets, is going to be like kicking dead whales down the beach. Is there an easier way?
1993 September 16, Joshua W. Burton, “OD has no more alternates for remap -- should I worry?”, in comp.sys.next.hardware (Usenet)
Origin
Originating in computer programming jargon.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
like kicking dead whales down the beach. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20kicking%20dead%20whales%20down%20the%20beach
“like kicking dead whales down the beach.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20kicking%20dead%20whales%20down%20the%20beach. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “like kicking dead whales down the beach,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20kicking%20dead%20whales%20down%20the%20beach.
Source: like kicking dead whales down the beach on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.