Nantucket sleigh ride

See also: Nantucket sleighride and Nantucket sleigh-ride

English

A Nantucket sleigh ride

Alternative forms

• Nantucket sleigh-ride, Nantucket sleighride

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

Nantucket sleigh ride (plural Nantucket sleigh rides)

1. (idiomatic) An instance of the dragging of a whaleboat across the surface of a body of water by a harpooned whale.
   • 1905 December 31, A. B. Hawser, “My Nantucket sleigh ride”, in Boston Globe, retrieved 22 August 2013, page SM10:

     If we can fasten a good fish tomorrow when you are with us," said the captain of the New Bedford whaling bark Morning Star to me, "I will try to give you a Nantucket sleigh ride."

   • 2007 July 29, Bruce Barcott, “In the Shadow of Moby-Dick”, in New York Times, retrieved 22 August 2013:

     [The] crew pushed out in a small boat and pierced the whale with a harpoon attached to a rope secured to the boat. Then it was hang on for your life. “A whale barreling along at the surface would take the men on the proverbial Nantucket sleigh ride, a bone-jarring, terrifying and, at times, no doubt exhilarating trip over the waves,” Dolin writes.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) An instance of the dragging of a boat (especially a small one) by an aquatic creature or vessel attached to it by a rope or other line.
   • 1974, Peter Benchley, Jaws (2012 Random House edition), →ISBN, p. 89 (Google preview):

     They said they planned to hook the shark with a gaff and go for a "Nantucket sleigh ride."

   • 2002 August 26, Stephen C. Sautner, “Outdoors: Just in the Nick of Time, A Largemouth Bass Bites”, in New York Times, retrieved 22 August 2013:

     Still fresh in my mind was the 15-pound striped bass that took me on a miniature Nantucket sleigh ride around Sandy Hook Bay last fall.

   • 2024 August 11, Drachinifel, 24:28 from the start, in The Drydock - Episode 310‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 August 2024:

     The only note of caution that I would put down is, look at what happens to modern fishing vessels when they occasionally accidentally catch a modern submarine; now, granted, of course modern submarines are far more powerful in terms of their propulsion systems, and far larger, often massively outmassing the fishing vessels that they capture, so the fishing vessels either end up being dragged under or if they're lucky taken on a bit of a Nantucket sleighride before they cut their lines or the net breaks […]

Usage notes

• Use of this term is sometimes attributed to Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick, but actually is not found in the text of his published works.

References

• “Nantucket sleigh ride”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.