porpoise
Said of an air-breathing aquatic animal such as a porpoise or penguin: To repeatedly…Said of an air-breathing aquatic animal such as a porpoise or penguin: To repeatedly jump out of the water to take a breath and dive back in a continuous motion.
» Whales, dolphins and porpoises are divided into two groups: toothed and baleen.
Hybrid · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 senses(intransitive)Said of an air-breathing aquatic animal such as a porpoise or penguin: To repeatedly jump out of the water to take a breath and dive back in a continuous motion.
(intransitive)Said of an aircraft: to make a series of plunges when taking off or landing; or of a watercraft: to successively plunge up and down in the water.
Examples
3 sentencesWhales, dolphins and porpoises are divided into two groups: toothed and baleen.
Toothed whales, including dolphins, porpoises, sperm whales and orcas, use sharp, pointed teeth to catch fish and other large prey.
Human and elephant, mouse and porpoise, all have three small bones in their middle ear — the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup.
Origin
From Middle English porpeys, purpeys, borrowed from Anglo-Norman porpeis, purpeis, Old FreFrom Middle English porpeys, purpeys, borrowed from Anglo-Norman porpeis, purpeis, Old French pourpois, porpois, pourpais, porpeis (“porpoise”), from Vulgar Latin *porcopiscis (“porpoise”, literally “hog-fish”), taken from Latin porcus (“hog, pig”) + piscis (“fish”). Compare (in transposed order) obsolete Italian pesce porco and Portuguese peixe porco; also Latin porcus marīnus (“sea hog”); akin in formation to Frankish *mariswīn (“porpoise, dolphin”) (whence German Meerschwein, English mereswine). Displaced native Middle English brunswyn. More at mereswine.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
porpoises, porpoising, porpoised, porpoisedSynonyms
1 synonymsWord family
6 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle