Killer whale

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sea mammal related to dolphins and porpoises (Orcinus orca).

    "Of this whale, little is known to the Nantucketer, and nothing at all to the professed naturalist. From what I have seen of him at a distance, I should say that he was about the bigness of a grampus. He is very savage - a sort of Feegee fish. He sometimes takes the great Folio whales by the lip and hangs there like a leech until the mighty brute is worried to death. The killer is never hunted. I have never heard what sort of oil he has. Exception might be taken to the name of this whale, on the grounds of its indistinctness. For we are all killers on land and on sea; Bonaparts and sharks included."

  2. 2
    predatory black-and-white toothed whale with large dorsal fin; common in cold seas wordnet

Etymology

Calque or mistranslation of Spanish asesina-ballenas (“whale killer”), referring to their tendency to hunt whales.

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