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Humpback   Listen
noun
Humpback  n.  
1.
A crooked back; a humped back.
2.
A humpbacked person; a hunchback.
3.
(Zool.)
(a)
Any whale of the genus Megaptera, characterized by a hump or bunch on the back. Several species are known. The most common ones in the North Atlantic are Megaptera longimana of Europe, and Megaptera osphyia of America; that of the California coasts is Megaptera versabilis.
(b)
A small salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), of the northwest coast of America; the humpbacked salmon.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Humpback" Quotes from Famous Books



... He thinks it is such a disgrace that even if he were not a humpback he says he would never marry to transmit this stain to the future Torquilstones—and if Robert ever marries any one without a pedigree enough to satisfy an Austrian prince, he will disown him and leave ...
— Red Hair • Elinor Glyn

... is of a sailor on this craft that a patriotic anecdote, now almost classic, is told. He was unhappily deformed, and while passing along a Liverpool street was greeted by a British tar with a blow on his "humpback" and the salutation: "Hello, Jack! What you got there?" "Bunker Hill, d——n ye!" responded the Yankee. "Think you can climb it?" Far out at sea, swept ever by the Atlantic gales, a mere sand-bank, with scant surface soil to support vegetation, this island soon proved ...
— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot

... Philip was than himself. An anatomist—even a mere physiognomist— would have seen that the deformity of Philip's spine was not a congenital hump, but the result of an accident in infancy; but you do not expect from Tom any acquaintance with such distinctions; to him, Philip was simply a humpback. He had a vague notion that the deformity of Wakem's son had some relation to the lawyer's rascality, of which he had so often heard his father talk with hot emphasis; and he felt, too, a half-admitted fear of him as probably ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot

... properly speaking. They were obliged to drive fourteen miles to Dinan in a ram-shackle carriage drawn by three fierce little horses, with their tails done up in braided chignons, and driven by a humpback. This elegant equipage was likewise occupied by a sleepy old priest, who smoked his pipe without stopping the whole way; also by a large, loquacious, beery man, who talked incessantly, informing the company that he was a friend of Victor Hugo, a child of nature aged ...
— Shawl-Straps - A Second Series of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag • Louisa M. Alcott

... humpback,' whispered Vedrine to Frey-det, 'and a lady's man into the bargain, all scent and pomade.' A horrible smell like a hairdresser's shop, otto of roses and macassar, mingled with the stifling fumes, of glue. Vedrine called once more in the direction of the back of the shop ...
— The Immortal - Or, One Of The "Forty." (L'immortel) - 1877 • Alphonse Daudet

... he remarked. "I was sent down here from the mountains, an' I hanker terrible for the sight of the old Humpback Knob." ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow

... A little humpback whale that came playing around our ship, as if trying to get a harpoon in him, prevented our heading off the steamer and getting some late papers. But as soon as a boat was lowered into the water the fishy representative of King Richard thought it began to look too much like business ...
— Schwatka's Search • William H. Gilder

... doctor had seen the position in which she was found lying in regard to the child—would he not tell the jury that she almost certainly rolled on to the child while it slept—that sort of rather painful stuff. Doctor chap rather jibbed a bit at being rushed, but humpback kept him to it devilish cleverly and the verdict was as good as given. The doc. was just going out of the box when Humpo called him back. 'One moment more, Doctor, if you please. Can you tell me, if you please, approximately the age ...
— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson

... these claws, old greyback! If you want I should leave this roof, just come and put me off. Try it on, old Beeswax. Yes, yes! try it on once, and we'll see whose eyes will look straightest in the morning! Come on, old Humpback! Try it on, old ...
— Wild Northern Scenes - Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod • S. H. Hammond



Words linked to "Humpback" :   Megaptera novaeangliae, spinal curvature, humpback whale, whalebone whale, hunchback, Megaptera, crookback, kyphosis



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