blue whale
noun
a migratory baleen whale, Balaenoptera musculus, mostly of oceans and seas in the Southern Hemisphere, growing to a length of 100 feet (30.5 meters) and having a furrowed, slate-blue skin mottled with lighter spots, in some seas acquiring a yellowish coating of diatoms on the underside: the largest mammal ever known, it is now endangered.
Nearby words
blue vein, blue velvet, blue verditer, blue vitriol, blue wavey, blue whale, blue whistler, blue wood aster, blue-arsed fly, blue-black, blue-blooded
Origin of blue whale
First recorded in 1850–55
Also called sulfur-bottom.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for blue whale
blue whale
noun
the largest mammal: a widely distributed bluish-grey whalebone whale, Sibbaldus (or Balaenoptera) musculus, closely related and similar to the rorquals: family BalaenopteridaeAlso called: sulphur-bottom
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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