walrus

Probably borrowed from Dutch walrus, a compound of wal (“whale”) and ros (“horse”). Displaced native Old English horshwæl (literally “horse-whale”). Compare similar constructions in Danish hvalros, Old Norse hrosshvalr, and German Walross.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔːl.ɹəs/, /ˈwɒl.ɹəs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑl.ɹəs/, /ˈwɔl.ɹəs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

walrus (plural walruses or walrus or walrusses or (both nonstandard, proscribed, uncommon and often humorous) walri or walrii)

1. A large Arctic marine mammal related to seals and having long tusks, tough, wrinkled skin, and four flippers, Odobenus rosmarus.
   • 1887, James W. Buel, Sea and Land, page 251:

     Of all the Phocine family none present so terrible and grotesque an appearance as the gigantic Walrus, also known as the morse and sea-horse.

2. (informal, sometimes derogatory) A man with a walrus moustache.
   • 2008, James E. Martin, The Chartreuse Mongoose, page 145:

     You old walrus, don't you think it is time for you to lop your whiskers off?

   • 2013, Marione Ingram, The Hands of War:

     One, a rumpled, whiskered walrus of a man, held a lantern near Mother's face.

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:walrus.

• morse (obsolete)
• sea horse (rare)

• → Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi script: ਵਾਲਰਸ (vālras)

  Shahmukhi script: والرس (vālras)

• → Welsh: walrws

• seal
• sea lion, sealion

walrus (third-person singular simple present walruses or walrusses, present participle walrusing or walrussing, simple past and past participle walrused or walrussed)

1. To hunt walruses
   • 2016, Andrey Kurkov, The President's Last Love, Kiev, 9 May 1985:

     It's strange to see parties of merrymakers gather where I nearly drowned, and later walrused with David Isaakovich, Father Basil and the rest of them.

2. To be like a walrus
   1. To move dragging one's belly along the floor
      • 2020, Will Ferguson, The Finder: A Novel:

        Gaddy walrused herself from the back seat

   2. To hang like a walrus's moustache
      • 2000, Michael L. McCoy, The Hunter, the Hound and a Rogue:

        His untrimmed mustache walrused down and over his hidden mouth

   3. To be prominent, like tusks
      • 2011, Robert Buettner, Overkill:

        Where a mammal had its canine teeth, great fangs walrused down from the grezzen's upper jaw, as long as scimitars and as thick as human thighs.

From Dutch walrus, probably from Danish hvalros or Swedish valross, from an inversion of Old Norse hrosshvalr (“horse-whale”).

walrus (plural walrusse)

1. walrus (Odobenus rosmarus)

From English walrus, from Danish hvalros, an inversion of Old Norse hrosshvalr (literally “horse-whale”). The term may have entered English via Dutch walrus.

• Hyphenation: wal‧rus

walrus

1. a walrus (Odobenus rosmarus)

The origin of this word is not wholly certain, with several theories proposed. Probably borrowed from Danish hvalros or Swedish valross, from an inversion of Old Norse hrosshvalr (“horse-whale”). Equivalent to wal (“whale; large sea-animal”) +‎ ros (“horse”). The Old Norse word may, however, been a folk-etymological modification of Old Norse rossmal, related to Proto-Germanic *rusta-, from the rust colour of the animal.[1] Preference for borrowing the inverted form could have been due to the influence of the already existing Dutch compound walvis (“whale”, literally “whale-fish”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋɑlrʏs/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: wal‧rus

walrus m (plural walrussen, diminutive walrusje n)

1. walrus, any member of the family Odobenidae of which Odobenus rosmarus is the sole extant member

• walrussnor
• walrustand

• Afrikaans: walrus