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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



129 words match “WHALE”

SPADE n.
A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale. Spade bayonet, a bayonet with a broad blade which may be used digging; -- called also trowel bayonet. -- Spade handle (Mach.), the forked end of a connecting rod in which a pin is held at both ends. See Illust. of Knuckle joint, under Knuckle.
SPAN n.
Span iron (Naut.), a special kind of harpoon, usually secured just below the gunwale of a whaleboat. -- Span roof, a common roof, having two slopes and one ridge, with eaves on both sides. Gwilt. -- Span shackle (Naut.), a large bolt driven through the forecastle deck, with a triangular shackle in the head to receive…
SPECK n.
The blubber of whales or other marine mammals; also, the fat of the hippopotamus. Speck falls (Naut.), falls or ropes rove through blocks for hoisting the blubber and bone of whales on board a whaling vessel.
SPECKSIONEER n.
chief harpooner, who also directs in cutting up the speck, or blubber; -- so called among whalers.
SPERM n.
rm oil, a fatty oil found as a liquid, with spermaceti, in the head cavities of the sperm whale. -- Sperm whale. (Zoöl.) See in the Vocabulary.
SPERMACETI n.
A white waxy substance obtained from cavities in the head of the sperm whale, and used making candles, oilments, cosmetics, etc. It consists essentially of ethereal salts of palmitic acid with ethal and other hydrocarbon bases. The substance of spermaceti after the removal of certain impurities is sometimes called ceti…
SPIRACLE n.
The nostril, or one of the nostrils, of whales, porpoises, and allied animals.
SPOUT v. 2 definitions
fish's maw Till he was spouted up at Ninivee Chaucer. Next on his belly floats the mighty whale . . . He spouts the tide. Creech.
SPUR n.
worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale, to strip off the blubber.
SQUALODON n.
A genus of fossil whales belonging to the Phocodontia; -- so called because their are serrated, like a shark's.
STAY n. 2 definitions
A corset stiffened with whalebone or other material, worn by women, and rarely by men. How the strait stays the slender waist constrain. Gay.
STUNT n.
Specifically: A whale two years old, which, having been weaned, is lean, and yields but little blubber.
SULPHUR n.
ydrating agent. Called also sulphuric anhydride, and formerly sulphuric acid. -- Sulphur whale. (Zoöl.) See Sulphur-bottom. -- Vegetable sulphur (Bot.), lycopodium powder. See under Lycopodium.
SULPHUR-BOTTOM n.
A very large whalebone whale of the genus Sibbaldius, having a yellowish belly; especially, S. sulfureus of the North Pacific, and S. borealis of the North Atlantic; -- called also sulphur whale.
THRASHER; THRESHER n.
her allied species. See Brown thrush. Sage thrasher. (Zoöl.) See under Sage. -- Thrasher whale (Zoöl.), the common killer of the Atlantic.
TOGGLE n.
pivoted crosspiece in a mortise near the point to prevent it from being drawn out when a whale, shark, or other animal, is harpooned. -- Toggle joint, an elbow or knee joint, consisting of two bars so connected that they may be brought quite or nearly into a straight line, and made to produce great endwise pressure,…
TOOTHED a.
Having marginal projecting points; dentate. Toothed whale (Zoöl.), any whale of the order Denticete. See Denticete. -- Toothed wheel, a wheel with teeth or projections cut or set on its edge or circumference, for transmitting motion by their action on the engaging teeth of another wheel.
TRAIN OIL n.
Oil procured from the blubber or fat of whales, by boiling.
TRUNK STEAMER n.
teamer having a high hatch coaming extending almost continuously fore and aft, but not of whaleback form at the sides.
TURRET STEAMER n.
A whaleback steamer with a hatch coaming, usually about seven feet high, extending almost continuously fore and aft.
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