cachalot

3 definitions found

cachalot - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Sperm whale \Sperm" whale`\ (Zool.)
     A very large toothed whale (Physeter macrocephalus), having
     a head of enormous size. The upper jaw is destitute of teeth.
     In the upper part of the head, above the skull, there is a
     large cavity, or case, filled with oil and spermaceti. This
     whale sometimes grows to the length of more than eighty feet.
     It is found in the warmer parts of all the oceans. Called
     also cachalot, and spermaceti whale.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Pygmy sperm whale (Zool.), a small whale (Kogia  breviceps
        ), seldom twenty feet long, native of tropical
        seas, but occasionally found on the American coast. Called
        also snub-nosed cachalot.
  
     Sperm-whale porpoise (Zool.), a toothed cetacean
        (Hyperoodon bidens), found on both sides of the Atlantic
        and valued for its oil. The adult becomes about
        twenty-five feet long, and its head is very large and
        thick. Called also bottle-nosed whale.
        [1913 Webster]

  cachalot \cach"a*lot\, n. [F. cachalot.] (Zool.)
     The sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). It has in the top
     of its head a large cavity, containing an oily fluid, which,
     after death, concretes into a whitish crystalline substance
     called spermaceti. See Sperm whale.
     [1913 Webster]

cachalot - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  cachalot
      n 1: large whale with a large cavity in the head containing
           spermaceti and oil; also a source of ambergris [syn: sperm whale
           , cachalot, black whale, Physeter catodon]