From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishporpoisepor‧poise /ˈpɔːpəs $ ˈpɔːr-/ noun [countable] HBAa sea animal that looks similar to a dolphin and breathes air
Examples from the Corpus
porpoise• Glancing sideways, he saw Collymore veer off, roll and gracefully arch like a porpoise, and go down again.• The dolphins and porpoises are hunted either with hand harpoons or in drive fisheries.• They got porpoises trained to kill gooks.• Suddenly three round-headed porpoises came bursting out of the nearly vertical wavefront immediately behind us.• Near Muckla Skerry there was a bit more action: groups of porpoises were puffing their way along.• Over half the species of toothed whales are dolphins or the closely related porpoises.• Dusky dolphins and Burmeister's porpoise are considerably more abundant and wide-ranging than the other three species.• He could do little more than watch porpoises and gulls with them.Origin porpoise (1300-1400) Old French porpois, from Medieval Latin porcopiscis, from Latin porcus ( → PORK) + piscis “fish” 