dunter

Noun

dunter (plural dunters)

1. (Scotland, dialectal, Northumberland) A porpoise.
   • "Here an old woman, thinking to help her pastor out of a dead lift, cried out, 'Aiblins, Sir, it was a dunter.' (The vulgar name of a species of whale common to the Scotch coast.)1845, Thomas Ingoldsby [pseudonym; Richard Barham], The Ingoldsby Legends, New York, N.Y.: W. J. Widdleton, published 1865, page 80
   • Porpoises, it is true, and "dunters" may be seen gambolling along the coast of Durham, but even that royal fish, the sturgeon, often caught in the last century, as the files of the Newcastle Courant prove, is a rarity on the coast.1883, “Local Records and Notes”, in Newcastle Courant, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, page 2
2. The common eider, Somateria mollissima.

   Synonyms:

   dunter goose