phocine
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Scientific Latin Phoca (genus name) (Classical Latin phōca (“seal”), from Ancient Greek ϕώκη) + -ine.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Adjective
phocine (comparative more phocine, superlative most phocine)
- Pertaining to a seal (or other members of the subfamily Phocinae); seallike. [from 19th c.]
- 1871, New York Daily Standard, 28 Dec 1871:
- He telegraphed to the whaling ports of New England, and sent messages to San Francisco and Alaska, to know if a group of sea lions and other specimens of the phocine tribe could be secured.
- 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita:
- she had already yanked out of me the coveted section and retreated to her mat near her phocine mamma.
- 1987, William Boyd, The New Confessions:
- She walked over towards me with an odd elegance, big strides, like a champion girl swimmer, say; muscled but lean, with a phocine grace.
- 1871, New York Daily Standard, 28 Dec 1871:
[edit] Translations
[edit] Noun
phocine (plural phocines)
- (zoology) A member of the subfamily Phocinae, comprising the "true" or "earless" seals.
- 2007, Brian Keith Hall, Fins into Limbs, p. 313:
- Phocines anchor their hands by flexing their fingers, digging them into the substrate, and then pulling their body forward by elbow and shoulder flexion.
- 2007, Brian Keith Hall, Fins into Limbs, p. 313:
[edit] Translations
member of subfamily Phocinae
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