porpoise

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por·poise

(pôr′pəs)

n. pl. porpoise or por·pois·es

1. Any of various marine toothed whales of the genus Phocoena and related genera, characteristically having a blunt snout and a triangular dorsal fin. Porpoises are placed either in their own family, Phocoenidae, or with the dolphins in the family Delphinidae.

2. Any of several related aquatic mammals, such as the dolphins.

[Middle English porpeis, from Old French (probably translation of a Germanic compound meaning sea-pig) : porc, pig (from Latin porcus; see porko- in Indo-European roots) + peis, fish (from Latin piscis).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

porpoise

(ˈpɔːpəs)

n, pl -poises or -poise

1. (Animals) any of various small cetacean mammals of the genus Phocaena and related genera, having a blunt snout and many teeth: family Delphinidae (or Phocaenidae)

2. (Animals) (not in technical use) any of various related cetaceans, esp the dolphin

[C14: from French pourpois, from Medieval Latin porcopiscus (from Latin porcus pig + piscis fish), replacing Latin porcus marīnus sea pig]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

por•poise

(ˈpɔr pəs)

n., pl. (esp. collectively) -poise, (esp. for kinds or species) -pois•es, n.

1. any of certain toothed cetaceans of the family Delphinidae having a blunt, rounded snout, esp. of the genus Phocoena, as the common porpoise, P. phocoena, of the Atlantic and Pacific. Compare dolphin.

v.i.

2. (of a speeding motorboat) to leap clear of the water after striking a wave.

3. (of a vehicle) to move forward with an alternately rising and falling motion.

[1275–1325; Middle English porpoys < Middle French porpois < Vulgar Latin *porcopiscis hog fish, for Latin porcus marīnus sea hog]

por′poise•like`, adj.

por·poise

(pôr′pəs)

Any of several small, toothed whales having a blunt snout and a triangular dorsal fin. Compare dolphin.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

porpoise - any of several small gregarious cetacean mammals having a blunt snout and many teeth

dolphin - any of various small toothed whales with a beaklike snout; larger than porpoises

genus Phocoena, Phocoena - porpoises

harbor porpoise, herring hog, Phocoena phocoena - the common porpoise of the northern Atlantic and Pacific

Phocoena sinus, vaquita - a short porpoise that lives in the Gulf of California; an endangered species

porpoise

noun

Related words
collective nouns school, gam

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

دُلْفين، خَنْزير البَحْر

sviňucha

marsvin

Tümmler

pyöriäinen

marsouin

hnísa

focena delfino

돌고래

jūrų kiaulė

jūrascūka, cūkdelfīns

bruinvis

nise

morświn

козлить

sviňucha

domuz balığı

海豚

porpoise

[ˈpɔːpəs] N (porpoise or porpoises (pl)) → marsopa f, puerco m de mar

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

porpoise

[ˈpɔː^rpəs] n → marsouin m

porpoise

n → Tümmler m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

porpoise

[ˈpɔːpəs] n → focena

porpoise

(ˈpoːpəs) noun

a type of blunt-nosed sea animal of the dolphin family.

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The porpose of zarengad and Hajiabad's study is evaluation of economic efficiency of power distribution companies of Iran, estimate the economic efficiency of power distribution companies of Iran and denotation of effective factors on it by using of accidental border fun?.

Performance efficiency of power plants under the ministry of energy during1988-2010 aspects of fossil fuel consumption

The porpose of the work presented in this paper is related to an analysis of condensation phenomena taking place in a capillary porous body and in a half open system, by solving governing equations derived from the mathematical model used, by giving the distributions of heat and moisture content in this media and by validating these results by experimental data.

Heat and mass transfer with condensation in capillary porous bodies

(64) Graham Greene, Stamboul Train (1932), Noel Langley, There's a Porpose Close Behind Us (1936), Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow (1921), Elizabeth Bowen 'Recent Photograph', (1926).

The emergence of the press Baron as 'literary villain' in English letters 1909-1939

For, now the Haddocks, and the shifting Sharks, That feed on Coriat, will become great Clarks: The wri-mouth'd Place, & mumping Whiting-mops, Will in their mawes keep Greeke and Latine shops, The Pork-like Porpose, Thorn-back, and the Scate, Like studious Grecian Latinists will prate, And men with eating them, by inspiration, With these two toungs, shall fill each barbarous Nation.

Fashioning familiar space in the domestic travel writing of John Taylor the Water-Poet

About six years earlier, in a letter addressed to her chaplain and servant, James Gloys, Margaret clearly questioned Pecock's loyalty to her in the face of what she saw in him as an increasingly self-interested attitude: 'And I porpose pat Pacoke schall haue les to doo for me another yeree than he haith had, if y may be bettere porvayed, with youre helpe, for he is for hym-self bott not for me' (no.

'Ryght worchepfull mastres': letters of request and servants' scripting of Margaret Paston's social self

OIL & GAS PRODUCERS PRIVATELY OWNED TARGET Natural gas assets (B.C.) -, British Columbia SIC: 1321 ACQUIROR Focus Energy Trust Calgary, Alberta SIC: 6726 Focus Energy is a limited porpose trust established for the investment, acquisition and management of oil and natural gas assets.

Transaction announcements

The budget law prohibits cuts in defense spending from being used for any porpose until 1994, when they may only be used for domestic discretionary or foreign and spending.

Congress, White House floating tax cuts to jump-start the economy: analysis

Peel of the Geological Survey of Greenland in Copenhagen, Denmark, describe an unprecedented discovery: the complete skeleton of an early Cambrian "halkieriid," which they porpose as the long-sought ancestor of the armored slug Wiwaxia.