Portuguese man-of-war

plural Portuguese men-of-war · alternative Portuguese man-o-war · alternative Portuguese man-o'-war

1. Physalia physalis, a marine cnidarian consisting of a floating colony of hydrozoans attached to a float, superficially resembling a jellyfish.

   However, two beaches in Tarragona in southern Catalonia were closed in July after Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis) were spotted in the water.

   2024 August 24, Stephen Burgen, “Resorts on Spain’s Costa Brava struggle with invasion of jellyfish as seas warm”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   Once the great streamers of a Portuguese man-of-war floated slowly by. They almost reached his head from the surface, fifteen feet away, and he remembered the whiplash of a sting from the contact of one of their tendrils that had burned for three of his days at Manatee Bay. If they caught a man across the heart they could kill him.

   1954, Ian Fleming, “Beau Desert”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 203

   Synonyms: bluebottle, man-of-war

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Portuguese, man-of-war.