hair seal

American

noun

any of various seals having coarse hair and no soft underfur.

hair seal British

noun

any earless seal, esp the harbour seal, having a coat of stiff hair with no underfur

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of hair seal

First recorded in 1815–25

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.

One finds old kettles and vats used for trying out the oil of the hair seal and the sea lion, as well as of the whales that were once numerous.

From Project Gutenberg

We saw a great many hair seals, shoals of pie-bald porpoises, and birds of the usual kinds in considerable numbers.

From Project Gutenberg

It is made from the skins of the hair seal, the supply coming from all parts of the North Atlantic Ocean.

From Project Gutenberg

The Carnivora include bears, wolverines, wolves, raccoons, foxes, sables, martens, skunks, kolinskis, fitch, fishers, ermines, cats, sea otters, fur seals, hair seals, lions, tigers, leopards, lynxes, jackals, &c.

From Project Gutenberg

Some were small cakes, which had been formed that winter, and upon some of these arctic birds and hair seals sported.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023