资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Note: The existing whales are divided into two groups: the
toothed whales ({Odontocete}), including those that
have teeth, as the cachalot, or sperm whale (see {Sperm
whale}); and the baleen, or whalebone, whales
({Mysticete}), comprising those that are destitute of
teeth, but have plates of baleen hanging from the upper
jaw, as the right whales. The most important species of
whalebone whales are the bowhead, or Greenland, whale
(see Illust. of {Right whale}), the Biscay whale, the
Antarctic whale, the gray whale (see under {Gray}), the
humpback, the finback, and the rorqual.
{Whale bird}. (Zo["o]l.)
(a) Any one of several species of large Antarctic petrels
which follow whaling vessels, to feed on the blubber and
floating oil; especially, {Prion turtur} (called also
{blue petrel}), and {Pseudoprion desolatus}.
(b) The turnstone; -- so called because it lives on the
carcasses of whales. [Canada]
{Whale fin} (Com.), whalebone. --Simmonds.
{Whale fishery}, the fishing for, or occupation of taking,
whales.
{Whale louse} (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of
degraded amphipod crustaceans belonging to the genus
{Cyamus}, especially {C. ceti}. They are parasitic on
various cetaceans.
{Whale's bone}, ivory. [Obs.]
{Whale shark}. (Zo["o]l.)
(a) The basking, or liver, shark.
(b) A very large harmless shark ({Rhinodon typicus}) native
of the Indian Ocean. It sometimes becomes sixty feet
long.
{Whale shot}, the name formerly given to spermaceti.
{Whale's tongue} (Zo["o]l.), a balanoglossus.
Shark \Shark\, n. [Of uncertain origin; perhaps through OF. fr.
carcharus a kind of dogfish, Gr. karchari`as, so called from
its sharp teeth, fr. ka`rcharos having sharp or jagged teeth;
or perhaps named from its rapacity (cf. {Shark}, v. t. & i.);
cf. Corn. scarceas.]
1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch
fishes of the order Plagiostomi, found in all seas.
Note: Some sharks, as the basking shark and the whale shark,
grow to an enormous size, the former becoming forty
feet or more, and the latter sixty feet or more, in
length. Most of them are harmless to man, but some are
exceedingly voracious. The man-eating sharks mostly
belong to the genera {Carcharhinus}, {Carcharodon}, and
related genera. They have several rows of large sharp
teeth with serrated edges, as the great white shark
({Carcharodon carcharias, or Rondeleti}) of tropical
seas, and the great blue shark ({Carcharhinus glaucus})
of all tropical and temperate seas. The former
sometimes becomes thirty-six feet long, and is the most
voracious and dangerous species known. The rare
man-eating shark of the United States coast
({Charcarodon Atwoodi}) is thought by some to be a
variety, or the young, of {C. carcharias}. The dusky
shark ({Carcharhinus obscurus}), and the smaller blue
shark ({C. caudatus}), both common species on the coast
of the United States, are of moderate size and not
dangerous. They feed on shellfish and bottom fishes.
2. A rapacious, artful person; a sharper. [Colloq.]
3. Trickery; fraud; petty rapine; as, to live upon the shark.
[Obs.] --South.
{Baskin shark}, {Liver shark}, {Nurse shark}, {Oil shark},
{Sand shark}, {Tiger shark}, etc. See under {Basking},
{Liver}, etc. See also {Dogfish}, {Houndfish},
{Notidanian}, and {Tope}.
{Gray shark}, the sand shark.
{Hammer-headed shark}. See {Hammerhead}.
{Port Jackson shark}. See {Cestraciont}.
{Shark barrow}, the eggcase of a shark; a sea purse.
{Shark ray}. Same as {Angel fish}
(a), under {Angel}.
{Thrasher} shark, or {Thresher shark}, a large, voracious
shark. See {Thrasher}.
{Whale shark}, a huge harmless shark ({Rhinodon typicus}) of
the Indian Ocean. It becomes sixty feet or more in length,
but has very small teeth.