spy-hop

plural spy-hops

1. alternativeAlternative form of spyhop.

   Gradually, spy-hopping humpbacks viewing whaling vessels became mating whales embracing in a double spy-hop.

   1995, Michelle A. Gilders, Reflections of a Whale-Watcher, Indiana University Press, page 47

   1 more example

   Soon, a mother whale marked by nature with a white, iris-shaped star on her side and a calf with a matching star surfaced bear the bow of our boat where I was sitting. Then they popped up together in a dual spy-hop.

   1999, Bobbie Sandoz-Merrill, In the Presence of High Beings: What Dolphins Want You to Know, Council Oak Books, page 181

present singular third person spy-hops · participle present spy-hopping · participle past spy-hopped · past spy-hopped

1. alternativeAlternative form of spyhop.

   Humpbacks are known to spy-hop and are perhaps the most aerial of cetaceans.

   1995, Michelle A. Gilders, Reflections of a Whale-Watcher, Indiana University Press, page 47

   2 more examples

   It was once thought that they stood on their tails on the ocean bottom to do this, but grays have been seen spy-hopping in very deep water and obviously can spy-hop merely by treading water with their tail flukes.

   1998, Robert H. Busch, Gray Whales: Wandering Giants, Orca Book Publishers, page 32

   Much of what these whales are doing eludes us. This became evident when I asked Payne whether we know why they spy-hop and breach.

   2001, Dick Russell, Eye of the Whale: Epic Passage from Baja to Siberia, Simon & Schuster, page 186