grampus
Americannoun
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grampuses
plural
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a cetacean, Grampus griseus, of the dolphin family, widely distributed in northern seas.
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any of various related cetaceans, as the killer whale, Orcinus (Orca ) orca.
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a giant whip scorpion common to Florida.
noun
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a widely distributed slaty-grey dolphin, Grampus griseus, with a blunt snout
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another name for killer whale
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of grampus
1520–30; earlier grampoys, variant (by assimilation) of graundepose great fish, equivalent to graunde grand + pose, poys < Middle French pois, peis < Latin pisce- (stem of piscis ) fish; replacing Middle English gra ( s ) peis < Middle French ≪ Latin crassus piscis fat fish
Vocabulary lists containing grampus
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He continues: “Water dog, grampus, grumpus, mollyhugger, horny head, devil dog.”
From Washington Times ● Dec. 2, 2018
It h a menacing or amorous puff, similar to the grampus.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
They could hear Mrs. Vand puffing and panting like a grampus, as she searched round and round.
From The Solitary Farm by Fergus Hume
“He’s got the nicest white hair and a gold-headed cane——” 246 “Not the grampus, Dot,” groaned Tess, in despair.
From The Corner House Girls on Palm Island by Thelma Gooch
The grampus stood on its tail in the water, with the greater upper part of its body exposed, and sighed again as though its heart were broken.
From The Corner House Girls on Palm Island by Thelma Gooch
Panting like grampuses, mopping their red faces, Sir Colin & posse then went back to their pews.
From Time Magazine Archive
We saw several flying-fish and a good many birds, apparently hovering over a shoal of whales or grampuses.
From A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam' Our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months by Annie Brassey
They put their heads under water and came up puffing and blowing like grampuses.
From Now It Can Be Told by Philip Gibbs
The second side-course—miocene—was out of course, flesh after fowl: marine mammalia,—seals, grampuses, and whales, served up with sea- weed on their flanks, hearts and kidneys deviled, and fins and flippers friccasied.
From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Herman Melville
Listen to me, darlint, and don't mind them stupid grampuses.
From The World of Ice by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
