baleen

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baleen

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From Middle English baleyne, from Old French baleine (“whale, whalebone”), from Latin balaena (“whale”), from Ancient Greek φάλαινα (phálaina, “whale”).

• IPA^(key): /bəˈliːn/, /ˈbeɪliːn/

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• Rhymes: -iːn, -eɪliːn

baleen (countable and uncountable, plural baleens)

1. (physiology, uncountable) The keratinous material that makes up the plates in the mouth of the baleen whale, Mysticeti, which it uses to trap its food; formerly used in corsetry.

   Synonym: whalebone

   • 1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 5, in The Subtle Minotaur‎:

     “You have probably never seen anything like this before, Mr. Toler. It is baleen, or if you prefer it, whalebone, taken from the mouth of the bowhead whale. It is used by the whale to filter its food.”

2. (zoology, countable) A baleen whale.
   • 2007, Lance E. Davis, In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits:

     Scammon estimates the number of baleens killed in the years 1835-72 at 131,000; once again, his figure needs to be adjusted.

3. (obsolete) A whale or other large fish.
   • 1572, John Bossewell, Workes of Armorie:

     The Balene is a fishe great and huge, much like to the Whale, and is so called, because of his outcasting and shedding of water, for they throwe water higher then other great fishes of the sea.

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Baleen”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume I (A–B), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 635, column 2.

• enable

baleen

1. genitive plural of balea

baleen

1. inflection of balear:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative