chimney's afire
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Mitchell_and_Croasdale%2C_successors_to_G.W._Ridgway_and_Co.%2C_dealers_in_sperm%2C_whale%2C_lard%2C_and_tanners_oil%2C_candles%2C_rice%2C_%26c._No._30_n%28or%29th_wharves%2C_above_Arch_St._Philadelphia%2C_%281856%29_%284680054040%29.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
Phrase
[edit]- (nautical) A phrase shouted when blood gushes out of a whale's blowhole after a killing blow is struck with a lance
- 2015 December, Nathaniel Philbrick, “How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World”, in Smithsonian Magazine[1]:
- Success would show itself as a geyser of crimson blood gushing from the whale’s blowhole, which caused whalemen to cry out, ‘Chimney’s afire!’