[f. FLUKE sb.2]

1

  1.  intr. Of a whale: To use the flukes, to ‘peak the flukes’: see FLUKE sb.2 2.

2

1840.  F. D. Bennett, Whaling Voy., 6, note. There she blow-o-s!—Th-e-r-e again!—Flukes!

3

1892.  K. Kipling, Barrack-r. Ballads, 206.

        O the blazing tropic night, when the wake ’s a welt of light
  That holds the hot sky tame,
And the steady fore-foot snores through the planet-powder’d floors
  Where the scared whale flukes in flame!

4

  b.  transf. in phrase (To go) fluking or all (-a-) fluking (see quot. 1867).

5

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxviii. We arrived on the following day, having gone ‘all fluking.’

6

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v. Flukes, From the power of these [flukes of a whale] the phrase obtained among whalers of fluking or all a-fluking, when running with a fresh free wind.

7

  2.  trans. In Whaling. a. To disable the flukes of (a whale) by spading. b. To fasten (a whale) by means of a chain or rope. (Cent. Dict.)

8