Killer Meaning

"Theſe Killers are from twenty to thirty Feet long, and have Teeth in both Jaws that lock one within another. They have a Fin, near the middle of their Backs, four or five Foot long. They go in Company by Dozens, and ſet upon a young Whale, and will bait him like ſo many Bull-dogs; ſome will lay hold of his Tail to keep him from threſhing, while others lay hold of his Head, and bite and threſh him, till the poor Creature, being thus heated, lolls out his Tongue, and then ſome of the Killers catch hold of his Lips, and if poſſible of his Tongue; and after they have killed him, they chiefly feed upon the Tongue and Head, but when he begins to putrify, they leave him. This Killer is without doubt the Orca, that Dr Frangius deſcribes in his Treatiſe of Animals." — 1734, Royal society of London, The Philosophical Transactions and Collections: Abridged and Disposed Under General Heads, Volume 9, Thomas Bennet, …, page 429:

"This skull, which has all the appearance of being that of a full-grown animal, is just one quarter the length and breadth of the skull of the adult common Killer (Orca gladiator)." — 1866, Gray, Catalogue of Seals and Whales in the British Museum, Volume 1, page 283:

"Fig. 188.—Grampus or Killer, Orca gladiator. (Flower, art. “Mammalia,” ‘Encyclopædia Britannica.’)" — 1891, William Thomas Blanford, Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Mammalia, Taylor & Francis, page 576:

"We once saw an attack made by three killers upon a cow whale and her calf, in a lagoon on the coast of California in the spring of 1858." — 1895, The Royal Natural History, Volume 3, Frederick Warne, page 55:

"Few animals known to man possess the savage and murderous nature of the small whale-like animals known as killers or orcas. They pass under various names as black fish, killer, orca, kill fish, sea tiger, and deserve all the titles." — 1908, Charles Frederick Holder, Big Game at Sea, Outing publishing Company, page 137: