orc

[ awrk ]
See synonyms for orc on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. any of several cetaceans, as a grampus.

  2. a mythical monster, as an ogre.

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Origin of orc

1
First recorded in 1520–30; partly from Middle French orque, a kind of whale, partly from Italian orca “large whale, fabulous sea monster,” partly from Latin orca, a kind of whale; see origin at orca; see also Orcus, ogre

Words Nearby orc

Other definitions for O.R.C. (2 of 2)

O.R.C.

abbreviation
  1. Officers' Reserve Corps.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use orc in a sentence

  • But with the dawn of that morning orc descended in fire, “and in the vineyards of red France appeared the light of his fury.”

    William Blake | Algernon Charles Swinburne
  • Last she calls upon orc; “Smile, son of my afflictions; arise and give our mountains joy of thy red light.”

    William Blake | Algernon Charles Swinburne
  • Of these two divinities, called in the mythology Los and Enitharmon, is born the man-child orc.

    William Blake | Algernon Charles Swinburne
  • Los embraces her, and she begets a child in her own image—a Human Shadow, who is named orc (passion).

    William Blake | Charles Gardner
  • One merely gathers, that orc releases himself in order to marry the shadowy daughter of Urthona,—Ah!

    William Blake | Irene Langridge

British Dictionary definitions for orc

orc

/ (ɔːk) /


noun
  1. any of various whales, such as the killer and grampus

  2. one of an imaginary race of evil goblins, esp in the fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien

Origin of orc

1
C16: via Latin orca, perhaps from Greek orux whale

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012