fur seal

noun

: any of various eared seals that have a double coat with a dense soft underfur and were hunted especially formerly for their desirable pelts:

a

: a large seal (Callorhinus ursinus) of the northern Pacific Ocean having its main breeding rookery on Pribilof Island in the Bering Sea

called also northern fur seal

b

: any of a genus (Arctocephalus) of seals chiefly of the southern hemisphere

called also southern fur seal

Illustration of fur seal

Examples of fur seal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The surviving crew fixed the ship, stocked it full of hundreds of the sea otters, foxes and fur seals that were abundant there, and returned to Siberia, impressing Russian fur hunters with their valuable cargo. —William L. Iggiagruk Hensley, The Conversation, 29 Mar. 2017

And Cape fur seals, the sharks’ main prey at Seal Island, seemed to respond quickly. —Melissa Cristina Márquez, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025

During the colder months, many would patrol the waters around Seal Island, where tens of thousands of Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) clustered. —Melissa Cristina Márquez, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025

In fifty years, more than a million fur seals were hunted. —Sebastian Modak, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 June 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1775, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fur seal

• abele
• alkyl
• anneal
• appeal
• cartwheel
• conceal
• congeal
• coquille
• corneal
• cornmeal
• flywheel
• foveal

Kids Definition

fur seal

noun

: any of various eared seals with a dense soft undercoat