hulk

Etymology 1

From Middle English hulk, hulke, holke (“hut; shed for hogs; type of ship; husk, pod, shell; large, clumsy person; a giant”) (probably reinforced by Middle Dutch hulk, huelc, and Middle Low German hulk, holk, hollek (“freighter, cargo ship, barge”)), from Old English hulc (“light ship; heavy, clumsy ship; cabin, hovel, hut”), from Proto-West Germanic *huluk, *hulik, from Proto-Germanic *hulukaz, *hulikaz (“something hollowed or dug out, cavity”), equivalent to hole/hollow + -ock. Cognate with Old High German holcho (“cargo or transport ship, barge”) (whence Middle High German holche, modern German Holk), Old Norse hólkr (“metal tube, ring”), dialectal Norwegian holk, hylke (“wooden barrel”), Middle English holken (“to dig out, gouge”). Relation to Medieval Latin hulcus, holcas (“ship”) and Ancient Greek ὁλκάς (holkás, “ship being towed; cargo ship; ship used for trading”) (compare Ancient Greek ἕλκω (hélkō, “to drag”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to draw, pull”)) is uncertain. It is not known whether the Middle Latin word was borrowed from Old English, or vice versa. It is also uncertain whether the Middle Latin hulcus, holcas was borrowed from the Greek or vice versa. The verb is derived from the noun.

noun

1. (nautical)
   1. (archaic) A large ship used for transportation; (more generally) a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre.
   2. (by extension) A non-functional but floating ship, usually stripped of equipment and rigging, and often put to other uses such as accommodation or storage.
      A sister ship, originally the Patriotic, and later renamed Lady Leinster and finally the Lady Connaught, was badly damaged by a mine between Liverpool and Belfast; the British & Irish Steam Packet Company next brought [sic] the hulk back from the Belfast Steamship Company and converted her into a livestock carrier. 1946 March and April, “Notes and News: Anglo-Irish Steamship Fleets”, in Railway Magazine, page 118
2. (figurative) A large structure with a dominating presence.
   The sturdy trunk of Central Park Tower is rising nearby – a great glass hulk that will soon steal the crown for the most vertiginous residences on the planet. 1 June 2019, Oliver Wainwright, “Super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive: the ‘pencil towers’ of New York’s super-rich”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-10-05
   Among its findings, the report says: "In recent years we have seen more stations transformed from run-down Victorian hulks, or spartan bus-sheltered platforms, into places that people can take pride in, feel comfortable in using, and which are fulfilling more of their wider potential. 26 August 2020, “Network News: Stations Investment Boosts Regeneration, Says Report”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 17
3. (figurative) A big (and possibly clumsy) person.
   1. (bodybuilding) An excessively muscled person.

verb

1. (transitive, nautical)
   1. To reduce (a ship) to a non-functional hulk.
      In Fremantle very few vessels appear to have been reduced to hulks, and only one figure head Samuel Plimsoll, [Fig. 62] survives from a sailing ship hulked in 1904. … The Sarah Burnyeat was hulked in Albany in 1886, … 2003, Gordon de L. Marshall, Ships' Figure Heads in Australia, Tangee Publishing, page 52
      No further additions were made to this group, and by 1729 the Rank was extinct (the last to be struck was the Ludlow, which had been hulked in 1719). 2017, Rif Winfield, Stephen S Roberts, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786, Seaforth Publsihing, page 203
   2. To temporarily house (goods, people, etc.) in such a hulk.
2. (transitive) To move (a large, hulking body).
   This hearty, willing man had hulked his 354 pounds about the world, faithfully and deftly running presidential errands in Cuba, Panama, the Philippines, Rome, Russia, and Japan and China. 1968, Francis Russell, The Shadow of Blooming Grove - Warren G. Harding in His Times
   A man with four children crowding like saplings around him whistles to wake up the elephant seal who has hulked his impossible body onto the beach. 1994, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Science and Other Poems, LSU Press, page 16
   Hadrian hulked his mass over the spot where the children had disappeared. 'You are still here, aren't you? I can feel your presence.' He walked forwards and his giant strides came down on the children. They scrambled out the way, … 2017, N.D.Rabin, Hidden Magic: Fear of the Smallest Wizard, AuthorHouse
3. (intransitive) To be a hulk, that is, a large, hulking, and often imposing presence.
   After one trip with them, he decided he couldn't stand to have bodyguards hulking around him wherever he went. He felt like an idiot walking along the aisles of the supermarket with eight lumpy men standing around … 1992, Richard Condon, The Venerable Bead, Macmillan, page 163
   As the occupants stepped out, he hulked at them menacingly and asked them the traditional question. 'Can Ah help youse?' 2006, Angus Dunn, Writing in the Sand, Luath Press Ltd
   An oven hulked in the middle of the room, detached from everything, and a gathering of objects sat in the corner: a rolled rug with gnarled tassels, a chair from the bar downstairs that was missing a leg, a box … 2007, Cheryl Strayed, Torch, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, page 156
   The remains of an old bar hulked in the center of the room. As it was draped with more dusty protective cloth, she assumed Hopkins had intended to restore it to whatever its former glory might have been. 2008, J. D. Robb, Three in Death, Penguin
   The whoosh pushed John down, and as he fell, he turned to see the machine hulking over him, just meters away. “Shit!” he cried … 2012, Paul Melko, The Broken Universe, Tor Books, page 314
4. (intransitive) Of a (large) person: to act or move slowly and clumsily.
   After a while he hulked up to where Erland sat, putting his hairy fist on the table and watching the boy work. 1934, Gösta Larsson, Our Daily Bread: A Novel
   Instead he hulked his way towards Kruger again as the crowd ooohd and aaahd at the prowess. The two men were about equal in height, but Matusak outweighed Kruger by about fifty pounds. 2008, Craig Conte, Millennial Reign, iUniverse, page 301

Etymology 2

A variant of holk (“to dig out, hollow out, make hollow; to dig up, excavate; to dig into, investigate”), from Middle English holken (“to dig out, hollow out; to dig up, excavate”) (compare holk (“a hollow; body cavity”)), perhaps from Middle Low German hȫlken (“to hollow out, gouge”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”, adjective); further etymology uncertain, perhaps either from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover”), or *ḱewh₁- (“to swell; to be strong”). Compare also Old English āhlocian (“to dig out”).

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete except Britain, dialectal) To remove the entrails of; to disembowel.