selkie
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of selkie
First recorded in 1685–95; Scots dialect (Orkney and Shetland Islands) variant of seal 2 ( def. )
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.
On their journey back, he learns that Saoirse is a selkie, an aquatic shape shifter that can temporarily assume human form.
From New York Times • May 4, 2020
She puts it on and is revealed to be a selkie, as at home in the waters as she is on land.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2015
She had pictured almost a modern selkie baby, large-eyed and at peace in the waves, wise beyond her days, able to cope with the modern world of rising tides and temperatures.
From Nature • Nov. 4, 2014
She neither confirms nor denies that she's a selkie.
From Time • Jun. 3, 2010
The selkie stories of seal creatures were well known, oft told, and in all of them there was a shed skin.
From "Son" by Lois Lowry
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.
