muktuk

plural muktuks · alternative maktak · alternative maktaaq · alternative maqtaq

1. uncountableusuallyThe skin and blubber of a whale, traditionally used as food by the Inuit.

   "Nathan, my baby!" Martha said. "Come get your muktuk! This my Cousin Clara, Clara Stone."

   2003, Stan Jones, White Sky, Black Ice

   2 more examples

   Nearly 12 hours after arrival, the whale carcass has been stripped and left for the polar bears. As tired families load up their share of meat and muktuk, I wonder just how long this tradition will continue.

   1990 August, Richard Olsenius, “Eskimos pull together for a whale harvest”, in National Geographic, volume 178, number 2, page 29

   The two species of whale from which muktuk is most often sliced are the bowhead and the beluga, or white whale.

   2006, Nancy Gates, The Alaska Almanac: Facts about Alaska, page 130