Portuguese man-o-war

Noun

Portuguese man-of-war (plural Portuguese men-of-war)

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