baleen : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: baleen	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for baleen
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
baleen n a horny material from the upper jaws of certain whales; used as the ribs of fans or as stays in corsets Synonym(s): whalebone, baleen
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Baleen \Ba*leen"\, n. [F. baleine whale and whalibone, L. balaena a whale; cf. Gr. [?]. ] (Zo[94]l. & Com.) Plates or blades of [bd]whalebone,[b8] from two to twelve feet long, and sometimes a foot wide, which in certain whales ({Bal[91]noidea}) are attached side by side along the upper jaw, and form a fringelike sieve by which the food is retained in the mouth.