blue whale
noun
a migratory baleen whale, Balaenoptera musculus, mostly of oceans and seas in the Southern Hemisphere, growing to a length of 100 feet (30.5 meters) and having a furrowed, slate-blue skin mottled with lighter spots, in some seas acquiring a yellowish coating of diatoms on the underside: the largest mammal ever known, it is now endangered.
Also called
sulfur-bottom.
Origin of blue whale
First recorded in 1850–55
Words nearby blue whale
British Dictionary definitions for blue whale
blue whale
noun
the largest mammal: a widely distributed bluish-grey whalebone whale, Sibbaldus (or Balaenoptera) musculus, closely related and similar to the rorquals: family Balaenopteridae
Also called: sulphur-bottom