Portuguese man-of-war

Portuguese man-of-war

noun
any of several large, oceanic hydrozoans of the genus Physalia, having a large, bladderlike structure with a saillike crest by which they are buoyed up and from which dangle tentacles with stinging cells.

Origin:
1700–10
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Portuguese man-of-war is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
Collins
World English Dictionary
Portuguese man-of-war
 
n
Sometimes shortened to: man-of-war any of several large complex colonial hydrozoans of the genus Physalia, esp P. physalis, having an aerial float and long stinging tentacles: order Siphonophora

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