whalebone

基本解释

By the reaction, you would have thought our BlackBerry-toting president had called for a return to horse-drawn carriages, outhouses, and whalebone corsets.
你的反应可能会觉得，我们的巧克力总统在呼吁我们回到马车车厢、短途旅行和紧身胸衣时代。
The Yankee blockade about the Confederate ports had tightened, and luxuries such as tea, coffee, silks, whalebone stays, colognes , fashion magazines and books were scarce and dear.
北方佬对南部联盟各州港口已加紧了封锁，因此茶叶、咖啡、丝绸、鲸须衣褡、香水、时装杂志和书籍等奢侈品，就既稀少又很贵了。
dict.cn
Very occasionally they had beautifully carved boards of whalebone on which they rubbed a high gloss on to the linen.
偶尔，他们非常精美雕刻板鲸须，他们摩擦的高光泽度的亚麻布。

But the whaling industry began its long decline more than 150 years ago, as demand for its products—which ranged from candles to lamp oil, corset whalebone, cosmetics and engine lubricants—evaporated with the appearance of petrochemicals, steel and plastics.
ECONOMIST: Obduracy in the face of hypocrisy

a strong, flexible material (= one that is able to bend) found as several hanging pieces in the upper part of the mouth of some types of whale, used in the past for example for making corsets (= a tight piece of underwear worn to make the waist appear smaller)

a horny elastic material forming a series of numerous thin plates that hang from the upper jaw on either side of the palate in the toothless (whalebone) whales and strain plankton from water entering the mouth (Also called baleen)