[a. OF. cete, fem., ad. L. cētus whale, in pl. cētē neut. a. Gr. κήτη, κήτεα whales: see quot. 1802.] A whale, a sea-monster.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 513, in O. E. Misc., 16. Ðis cete ðanne hise chaueles lukeð.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. xxvi. (1495), 463. The whale is callyd Cete.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), I. 22. Cete or Whales.
1854. Badham, Halieut., 205. This real cete of a scomber measured thirty-two feet lengthways, and had … a girth of sixteen feet.
