Noun

1. A vessel or person employed in the whale fishery.
   • 1863: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, v. - But o' Thursday t' Resolution, first whaler back this season, came in port.
   • 1890: Century Illustrated Magazine, XL, 511 - For a whaler's wife to have been "'round the Cape" half a dozen times, or even more, was nothing extraordinary.
2. One who whales, or beats; a big, strong fellow; hence, anything of great or unusual size, a whopper, a whacker.
3. name given in Sydney to the shark Carcharias brachyurus Günth.
4. a sundowner; one who cruises about.

   1893: Sydney Morning Herald, Aug. 12, 1893 - the nomad, "the whaler," it is who will find the new order hostile to his vested interest of doing nothing.