Portuguese man-of-war
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Related to Portuguese man-of-war: fin whale, Physalia physalis
Portuguese man-of-war:
see jellyfishjellyfish,common name for the free-swimming stage (see polyp and medusa), of certain invertebrate animals of the phylum Cnidaria (the coelenterates). The body of a jellyfish is shaped like a bell or umbrella, with a clear, jellylike material filling most of the space between
..... Click the link for more information. ; polyp and medusapolyp and medusa,
names for the two body forms, one nonmotile and one typically free swimming, found in the aquatic invertebrate phylum Cnidaria (the coelenterates). Some animals of this group are always polyps, some are always medusae, and some exhibit both a polyp and a medusa
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Portuguese man-of-war
[‚pȯr·chə′gēz ¦man əv ′wȯr] (invertebrate zoology)
Any of several brilliantly colored tropical siphonophores in the genus Physalia which possess a large float and extremely long tentacles.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Portuguese man-of-war
a long tentacled jellyfish whose sting can be deadly. [Zoology: NCE, 1408]
See: Deadliness
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Portuguese 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
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005