spinner dolphin

noun

: a long-beaked dolphin (Stenella longirostris) that is typically dark gray above and white below and that is noted for its habit of spinning in the air when breaching

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rule under the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits swimming with or getting within 50 yards of a spinner dolphin that is within 2 nautical miles of the shore of the main Hawaiian Islands. —From Usa Today Network And Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 30 Sep. 2021

Those leaping spinner dolphins in Hawaii look playful; the orcas in British Columbia not so much. —Ginger Dingus, USA TODAY, 23 Jan. 2020

Maddalena Fumagalli, a cetacean biologist at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, investigates these issues in a study on spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) published today in Royal Society Open Science. —Virginia Morell, Science | AAAS, 24 Apr. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1976, in the meaning defined above