Dolphin

Quick meaning: Dolphin is a noun meaning A carnivorous cetacean with a beak-like snout, famed for their intelligence and occasional willingness to approach humans.

Meaning

A carnivorous cetacean with a beak-like snout, famed for their intelligence and occasional willingness to approach humans.

More Meanings

1. (heraldry) A depiction of a fish, with a broad indented fin, usually embowed.
2. The dauphin, eldest son of the kings of France.
3. (nautical) A kind of wreath or strap of plaited cordage.
4. (nautical) A spar or buoy held by an anchor and furnished with a ring to which ships may fasten their cables.
5. (nautical) A mooring post on a wharf or beach.
6. A fish, the mahi-mahi or dorado, Coryphaena hippurus, with a dorsal fin that runs the length of the body, also known for iridescent coloration.
7. (history) A mass of iron or lead hung from the yardarm, in readiness to be dropped through the deck and the hull of an enemy's vessel to sink it.

Example Sentences

For a dolphin or buoy to be placed on the south point of Goat Island, in the harbor of Newport, one hundred and fifty dollars.

The Dolphin is now seldom used, but a rope treated in the same manner, with mousings raised on it at regular intervals, is sometimes put around a Launch, just below the gunwale outside and secured there as a sort of permanent fender; this also is called a Dolphin.

Sometimes a stoppage would take place owing to the accumulation of ice between the Dolphin and the dam, which kept that above back until a mass of ice more resembling an island than anything else it can be compared to, would force the whole mass before it, breaking up the large blocks accumulated at the dam into a thousand pieces.

At each end of the piers in the water, in cases where several rows of pile are driven, a sort of cutwater should be formed, in order to ward off heavy bodies, such as floating trees, ice, etc. and prevent them from injuring the superstructure (called in German constructions, "Eisbrecher," or ice-breaker). This is usually done by driving one pile by itself in advance of the rest, or by forming what is called a "dolphin" at each end of the pier.

Word Forms

• dolphins

Synonyms for dolphin

Depending on context, synonyms include mereswine, dolphinfish, mahimahi.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include mahimahi, dolphinfish, bottlenose, tuna, delphin, dauphin.

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