E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Whale.
Very like a whale. Very much like a cock-and-bull story; a fudge. Hamlet chaffs Polo’nius by comparing a cloud to a camel, and then to a weasel, and when the courtier assents Hamlet adds, “Or like a whale”; to which Polonius answers, “Very like a whale.” (Act iii. 2.)
