Walrus
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A large Arctic marine mammal related to seals and having long tusks, tough, wrinkled skin, and four flippers, Odobenus rosmarus.
"Of all the Phocine family none present so terrible and grotesque an appearance as the gigantic Walrus, also known as the morse and sea-horse."
- 2 either of two large northern marine mammals having ivory tusks and tough hide over thick blubber wordnet
- 3 A man with a walrus moustache. derogatory, informal, sometimes
"You old walrus, don't you think it is time for you to lop your whiskers off?"
- 1 To hunt walruses
"It's strange to see parties of merrymakers gather where I nearly drowned, and later walrused with David Isaakovich, Father Basil and the rest of them."
- 2 To be like a walrus; To move dragging one's belly along the floor
"Gaddy walrused herself from the back seat"
- 3 To be like a walrus; To hang like a walrus's moustache
"His untrimmed mustache walrused down and over his hidden mouth"
- 4 To be like a walrus; To be prominent, like tusks
"Where a mammal had its canine teeth, great fangs walrused down from the grezzen's upper jaw, as long as scimitars and as thick as human thighs."
Example
More examples"Yesterday I went to the zoo and saw a huge walrus."
Etymology
Probably borrowed from Dutch walrus, a compound of wal (“whale”) and ros (“horse”). Displaced native Old English horshwæl (literally “horse-whale”). Compare similar constructions in Danish hvalros, Old Norse hrosshvalr, and German Walross.
Related phrases
More for "walrus"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.