dugong (du gong)

[Also duyong; core dugong, of the Indian seas. In general configuration it resembles a cetacean, having a tapering fishlike body ending in flukes like a whale's, with two fore Dugong (Halicore dugong). flippers and no hind limbs. It is known to attain a length of 7 or 8 feet, and is said to be sometimes much longer. The flesh is edible, and not unlike beef. Other products of the dugong are leather, ivory, and oil. The dugong and the manatee, of the old and new world respectively, are the best-known sirenians, and leading living representatives of the order Sirenia (which see). They may have contributed to the myth of the mermaid. See Halicore. dugout (dug'out), n. 1. A boat consisting of a log with the interior dug out or hollowed. It is a common form of the primitive canoe. Our boat was a very unsafe dug - out with no out-riggers, in which we could not dare to beguile a part of the way in sleep, for fear of capsizing it by an unguarded mov moveH. O. Forbes , Eastern Archipelago, p. 296. 1793 2. A shelter or rough kind of house excavated in the ground, or more generally in the face of a bluff or bank. Whole dugouts are entirely exca dulcarnon Thré day is in dub amang the dukis He did with dirt him hyde. Bannatyne Poems, p. 22. The small outlying camps are often tents or mere dug outs in the ground. T. Roosevelt , The Century, XXXV. 499. People must resort to dug - outs and cellar caves. Jour. Franklin Inst., CXXI. 259.