Definitions for porpoise

• Definition
• Anagrams (202)

porpoise por·poise

Spelling: [pawr-puh s]

IPA: /ˈpɔr pəs/

Porpoise is a 8 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 12 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 14 points.

You can make 202 anagrams from letters in porpoise (eioopprs).

Definitions for porpoise

noun

1. any of several small, gregarious cetaceans of the genus Phocoena, usually blackish above and paler beneath, and having a blunt, rounded snout, especially the common porpoise, P. phocoena, of both the North Atlantic and Pacific.
2. any of several other small cetaceans, as the common dolphin, Delphinus delphis.

verb (used without object)

1. (of a speeding motorboat) to leap clear of the water after striking a wave.
2. (of a torpedo) to appear above the surface of the water.
3. to move forward with a rising and falling motion in the manner of a porpoise:

Origin of porpoise

1275-1325; Middle English porpoys Middle French porpois Vulgar Latin *porcopiscis hog fish, for Latin porcus marīnus sea hog

Examples for porpoise

The next business was to move in all the furniture of the porpoise.

"The men from the porpoise can't be far off," said the doctor.

I led him to my boat, assisted him in, and returned to the porpoise.

Then we've not much to fear from him; but here he is, puffing like a porpoise.

Tad made a long, curving dive not unlike that of a porpoise.

He might as well have tried to get early speed out of a porpoise.

His skin, like that of the porpoise, is as thin as gold-beaters' leaf.

Can't we build a small boat out of the timber of the porpoise?

Perhaps, suggested Bell, we might make a ship out of some of the planks of the porpoise.

But I wonder what the porpoise was, and what brought her in these seas?