/ming"kee/ , n.
a dark-colored baleen whale, Baleanoptera acutorostrata, inhabiting temperate and polar seas and growing to a length of 33 ft. (10 m): reduced in numbers. Also called minke whale, lesser rorqual .
[ 1930-35; minkehval, allegedly after a crew member of the Norwegian whaling pioneer Svend Foyn (1809-94), named Meincke, who mistook a pod of minkes for blue whales ]