What does "spyhop" mean?

The action of raising the front half of the body out of the sea in a controlled manner.

What is a synonym for "spyhop"?

Common synonyms include: eye out, eye-out, head rise, head rise.

Spyhop

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
The action of raising the front half of the body out of the sea in a controlled manner.
"In a more vigorous spyhop, the pectorals are exposed but are rarely brought completely out of the water. On occasion a whale respires during a spyhop."

Verb

1
To raise the front half of the body out of the sea in a controlled manner. intransitive
"Killer whales sometimes spyhop. To spyhop, they lift the front half of their body out of the water."

Synonyms

All synonyms

eye out eye-out head rise head rise

Example

More examples

"In a more vigorous spyhop, the pectorals are exposed but are rarely brought completely out of the water. On occasion a whale respires during a spyhop."

Etymology

From spy + hop.

More for "spyhop"

Synonyms Sentences Pronunciation Translate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonyms See usage examples Check pronunciation Browse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.