Other forms: walruses
A walrus is a large sea mammal with long tusks. A bull walrus, walruses on the ice, the walrus's tusks.
Both sexes grow tusks and use them to haul out onto ice, which is why one scientific name for the animal means tooth-walker. A walrus moustache is one that droops past the mouth. The name came from Dutch and means whale-horse.
1nounwalrusA large sea mammal with long tusks.
“A huge walrus lay on the ice, its long tusks shining in the sun.”
walrus is a sea mammal.
Probably from Dutch walrus, from wal, whale, plus ros, horse. Old English had horshwael, horse-whale, for the same animal.
Dutch
walrus
English, today
walrus
Built from
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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA