sea-unicorn
1. The Narwhal.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxiii. 167 The Sea-Unicornes,..are of that strength and bignesse, as able to penetrate the ribs of ships. a 1711 Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 30 The Angel a Sea-Unicorn espy'd. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxvii. (1856) 340 That monodontal process which gives them their name of sea-unicorn. |
| attrib. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Sea-unicorn Tooth, a name for the spiral horn or tusk of the narwhal. |
2. = sea-bat 3.
| 1830 J. F. South in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XXI. 722 Near the openings of the nostrils is a little, hard, horny appendage, terminating in a tubercle, and hence the fish [Malthe vespertilio] has sometimes been called the Sea Unicorn. |