Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several large baleen whales of the family Balaenidae, characterized by a large head with an arched upper jaw and absence of a dorsal fin.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- The bowhead, Arctic, or Greenland whale (
Balæna mysticetus ), from whose mouth the best whalebone is obtained. - Any other whale that produces valuable whalebone, as the Atlantic, or Biscay, right whale (
Balæna cisarctica ), and the Pacific right whale (Balæna Sieboldii ); a bone whale. - (Zoöl.) a small New Zealand whale
(Neobalæna marginata) which is only about sixteen feet long. It produces short, but very elastic and tough, whalebone.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
baleen whales belonging to the family Balaenidae, in thegenera Eubalaena (three species) and Balaena (one species, thebowhead whale , also called the Greenland right whale).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun large Arctic whalebone whale; allegedly the `right' whale to hunt because of its valuable whalebone and oil
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Because it was the “right” whale to kill.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From the opinion of whalers that balaenid whales were the "right" (i.e. correct) whales to target because their carcases were easier to collect.
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