English

Alternative forms

• sea lion

Noun

sealion ‎(plural sealions)

1. Less common spelling of sea lion.

Verb

sealion ‎(third-person singular simple present sealions, present participle sealioning, simple past and past participle sealioned)

1. (Internet, slang) To intrude on an online conversation with disingenuous questions in an attempt to engage in unwanted debate as a form of harassment.
   • 2014 March 12, Glenn Fleishman, “Twitter takes aim at trolls—and promises more”, in Boing Boing:

     Randi's list is a key reason I've been able to continue to use Twitter, as it prevents relentless ideological sealions from crowding my mentions.

   • 2015 January 28, Andrew Wheeler, “Agent Carter’ Recap, Episode 4: The Blitzkrieg Button”, in Comics Alliance:

     There, Peggy speaks for every angry marginalised person who’s ever been sealioned or tone-policed in a disagreement.

   • 2015 March 24, Sarah Seltzer, “Beyond Mansplaining: A New Lexicon of Misogynist Trolling Behaviors”, in Flavorwire:

     The purpose of sealioning never to actually learn or become more informed.

   • 2015 April 1, Arthur Chu, “Trevor Noah and the Toxicity of Twitter: A Cocktail Party Conversation That’s Being Refereed”, in The Daily Beast:

     I can attest to reactionary right-wing trolls being the black belt masters of Internet pile-ons, or as Wondermark has indelibly dubbed the practice, “sealioning.”

   • 2016 November 19, Cathy Young, “The dangers of going too far to curb online harassment”, in Washington Post:

     Popular definitions of harassment also extend to “sealioning” — a recently coined term based on an Internet comic, “The Terrible Sea Lion” — which seems to mean little more than unwelcome attempts to engage someone in debate.

Anagrams

• aloesin
• anisole
• læsion
• Sloanie