whale of an adventure
- idiom
- /weɪl əv ən ædˈvɛnʧər/
- Informal
:
gran aventura
- With unexpected twists and breathtaking views, their road trip turned into a whale of an adventure.
Examples
-
Last summer, we went hiking in the Andes and had a whale of an adventure.
-
The children thought their journey through the old castle was a whale of an adventure.
-
We had a whale of an adventure in Hawaii!
-
That trip to the mountains was a real whale of an adventure.
-
Last summer, we went hiking in the Andes and had a whale of an adventure.
-
The children thought their journey through the old castle was a whale of an adventure.
-
With unexpected twists and breathtaking views, their road trip turned into a whale of an adventure.
Synonyms
683
1.4
An unusual, exciting experience that can be dangerous
4
4.8
A long exciting trip with adventure and many challenges
A journey that includes exciting activities and some risk
How Exciting
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'whale' evokes largeness, and 'adventure' is transparent, so a learner could plausibly infer that it means a particularly large or notable adventure. However, the construction 'a whale of a X' is an idiomatic intensifier in English rather than a regular compositional pattern, so the precise pragmatic nuance (especially the colloquial/positive evaluative sense) may not be fully predictable without exposure. Therefore it is partly transparent but requires some familiarity with the fixed intensifying phrase.
Etymology
The phrase whale of an adventure may come from the image of a very large whale, something so huge and impressive that it stays in your memory. So, calling a trip a whale of an adventure means it was 'very exciting' and 'memorable'.