seal

«seal» in Mova's school dictionary: A sea animal with a smooth body, flippers and thick fat… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a seal, seals); verb (seal, seals, sealed, sealing)

meaning for a pupil

1) A sea animal with a smooth body, flippers and thick fat, that lives in the sea and on land, eats fish and swims very well. tree →

2) Something that closes a container tightly so nothing gets in or out. tree →

3) A special stamp or mark, often in wax, put on a document to show it is real. tree →

4) (verb) To close something tightly. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, seals are mammals, not fish: they breathe air, have fur and feed their pups milk; thick blubber keeps them warm. At the beach, safety rules say keep away from seals and their pups and never touch them. In everyday life and cooking, jars and lunch boxes are sealed to keep food fresh; in safety, a broken seal on a bottle of medicine or food is a warning sign. Phrases: «seal pup», «seal the envelope», «sealed with a kiss», «seal of approval».

examples

• A seal lay on the rocks in the sun. tree →
• Seals are mammals and breathe air. tree →
• Don't go near a seal pup, even if it seems alone. tree →
• Seal the envelope before you post it. tree →
• Don't use the medicine if the seal is broken. tree →
• The king pressed his seal into hot wax. tree →
• The plastic seal keeps the food fresh. tree →
• Seals use their flippers to swim fast. tree →

note

Countable. A sea lion is related to a seal but has ear flaps and can walk on its flippers.

In the corpora

• Seal whiskers are so sensitive that a blindfolded seal followed a fish's water trail that was more than 30 seconds old.
• Seals can sleep floating upright with their noses up, hold their breath for many minutes and close their nostrils tightly when they dive.
• Polar bears hunt seals by waiting at breathing holes for hours or even days.
• Ringed seals dig snow caves on the ice to hide their pups and keep breathing holes open by scratching the ice with strong claws.
• When you graze your knee, blood dries into a scab that seals the gap like a plaster while new skin grows underneath.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «seal» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.