Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An albatross, especially one of the genus Thalassarche, found in the Southern Hemisphere.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of a group of medium-sized albatrosses in the genus Thalassarche.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration (influenced by Molly, nickname for Mary) of Dutch mallemok : mal, foolish (of unknown origin; probably applied to the birds because sailors found them easy to catch) + mok, seagull (of unknown origin).]

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Examples

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  • "...there were others that he could not identify with any certainty, birds to which he sailors gave the genreal name of mollymawks."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 147

    March 4, 2008

  • See also mallemawk.

    March 6, 2008

  • Any one of several species of large pelagic petrels and fulmars, as Fulmarus glacialis, of the North Atlantic, and several species of aestrelata, of the Southern Ocean. See Fulmar.

    Alternative forms: mollymawk, malmock, mollemock, mallemocke

    Origin: Sw. Mallemucke the stormy petrel

    January 18, 2009