Definition of "baleen" [ba•leen]

• See whalebone. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The fact that the krill are strained out of the water by the baleen is a matter of processing - it comes after the whale has taken a bite."
• "We do know that its baleen is particularly fine, allowing it to filter the comparatively small copepods [adjacent photo, also from the Right Whale Aerial Surveys site, shows a feeding sei."
• "The baleen is a horny material on the upper jaws of some whales."