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Whalebone (2 syl.)

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White as whalebone. Our forefathers seemed to confuse the walrus with the whale; ivory was made from the teeth of the walrus, and “white as whalebone” is really a blunder for “white as walrusivory.”

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Wessex, or West Saxon Kingdom
Westmoreland [Land of the West Moors]
Wet
Wet-bob and Dry-bob
Wet Finger (With a)
Wetherell (Elizabeth)
Wexford Bridge Massacre
Weyd-monat
Whale
Whale
Whalebone
Wharncliffe
Wharton
What we Gave we Have, What we Spent we Had, What we Had we Lost
What’s What
Whately
Wheal
Wheatear (the bird)
Wheel
Wheel of Fortune (The)
Whelps