hulk
n. countablen. the large, empty body of an old ship that can no longer move on its own. It is often used as a floating storage space or a prison.
n. the body of an old ship that is no longer seaworthy, often stripped of its engines and equipment. Frequently used to describe a large, clumsy person or a massive, derelict object.
The rusted hulk of the ship sat in the harbor.
After the fire, the building was nothing more than a blackened hulk of twisted metal and broken glass.
The abandoned tanker remained a massive, rusting hulk on the shoreline, serving as a grim reminder of the environmental disaster that had occurred decades earlier.
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 (“ship”) is uncertain, as Old English may have borrowed from Latin or vice versa, but the form holcas rather points to borrowing from Ancient Greek ὁλκάς (holkás, “ship being towed; cargo ship, ship used for trading, holcad”) (compare Ancient Greek ἕλκω (hélkō, “to drag”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to draw, pull”)). See more at the Old English entry hulc. The verb is derived from the noun.
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”).
Often used metaphorically to describe any large, broken-down vehicle or structure.