Fulmar

Origin

From Old Norse fúll ("foul") + már ("gull"), in reference to the foul-smelling vomit it ejects to deter predators.

Full definition of fulmar

Noun

1. Either of two species of pelagic seabird in the genus Fulmarus, Fulmarus glacialis and F. glacialoides, which breed on cliffs.
• 2004, Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen, Tinna Møbjerg, Nipisat - A Saqqaq Culture Site in Sisimiut, Central West Greenland, page 104,In the southern districts, the Inuit hunted fulmars with bird darts from kayaks (Helms 1926). The Nipisat people may have hunted fulmar and great shearwater, probably using similar methods.
• 2009, Gary Latter, Scottish Rock, Volume 2: North, page 383,In particular, fulmars have the distinctive trait of vomiting half-digested fish oil when approached on the nest and should be given a wide berth wherever possible.
• 2010, Roger D. Taylor, Mingming & the Art of Minimal Ocean Sailing, page 290,And why oh why is it always bloody fulmars following us about? Have they got nothing better to do, these silly lickspittle fulmars, than to ape every petty twist and turn of our hollow peregrinations? I'm sick of fulmars.

Derived terms

• northern fulmar (F. glacialis)
• southern fulmar (F. glacioides)
• fulmar prion

Synonyms

• stinker

Anagrams

• armful