thresher shark

noun

: a large nearly cosmopolitan shark (Alopias vulpinus) that has a greatly elongated curved upper lobe of the tail which is often used to thresh the water to round up the schooling fish on which it feeds see shark illustration

Examples of thresher shark in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But a handful of them—including great white sharks, thresher sharks and mako sharks—are regionally endothermic, just like the megalodon was. —Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 June 2023

Or out-jump the thresher shark? —Jennifer Maas, Variety, 16 June 2022

Note for the thresher shark, more than half of its body length comes from its long tail. —Olivia Munson, USA TODAY, 28 Oct. 2022

The thresher shark has one of the longest tails in the shark family, says Save Our Seas Foundation. —Olivia Munson, USA TODAY, 28 Oct. 2022

Former commercial fisherman starts sea kelp farm as a do-no-harm response to pandemic Drone footage shows thresher shark along the shore at Narragansett BeachBaby Shark in Rhode Island? —Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 11 July 2022

Oregon's Department of Fish & Wildlife lists the salmon shark, spiny dogfish, soupfin shark, common thresher shark, basking shark, blue shark as native to its coastal waters, among others. —Julia Musto, Fox News, 26 Aug. 2021

The funds will finalize implementation of state legislation passed in 2018 aimed at phasing out the use of drift gill nets, which fishing boats pull behind them to capture swordfish, opa and thresher shark. —Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 July 2021

In the latest example, an adult 15-foot thresher shark — itself equipped with a whiplike tail capable of stunning blows — washed up in Libya. —Joshua Sokol, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1888, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

thresher shark

noun

: a large shark that has a very long curved upper lobe on its tail which it often uses in rounding up and stunning fish to feed on