turn flukes

verb

Of a whale: to go under, dive.

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Meanings

verbturn flukes (third-person singular simple present turns flukes, present participle turning flukes, simple past and past participle turned flukes)

present singular third person turns flukes · participle present turning flukes · participle past turned flukes · past turned flukes

  1. Of a whale: to go under, dive.
  2. slangnauticalTo turn in, go to bed.

    But come, it's getting dreadful late, you had better be turning flukes--it's a nice bed; Sal and me slept in that ere bed the night we were spliced.

    1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 3”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
Cite this entry
APA

turn flukes. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turn%20flukes

MLA

“turn flukes.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turn%20flukes. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “turn flukes,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turn%20flukes.

Source: turn flukes on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.