turn flukes

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

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

1. Of a whale: to go under, dive.
2. (nautical slang) To turn in, go to bed.
   • 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:

     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.