Jonah
    n 1: (Old Testament) Jonah did not wish to become a prophet so
         God caused a great storm to throw him overboard from a
         ship; he was saved by being swallowed by a whale that
         vomited him out onto dry land
    2: a person believed to bring bad luck to those around him [syn:
       jonah, jinx]
    3: a book in the Old Testament that tells the story of Jonah and
       the whale [syn: Jonah, Book of Jonah]

Jonah \Jo"nah\, n.
   The Hebrew prophet, who was cast overboard as one who
   endangered the ship; hence, any person whose presence is
   unpropitious.
   [1913 Webster]

   Jonah crab (Zool.), a large crab (Cancer borealis) of the
      eastern coast of the United States, sometimes found
      between tides, but usually in deep water.
      [1913 Webster]

Jonah
   a dove, the son of Amittai of Gath-hepher. He was a prophet of
   Israel, and predicted the restoration of the ancient boundaries
   (2 Kings 14:25-27) of the kingdom. He exercised his ministry
   very early in the reign of Jeroboam II., and thus was
   contemporary with Hosea and Amos; or possibly he preceded them,
   and consequently may have been the very oldest of all the
   prophets whose writings we possess. His personal history is
   mainly to be gathered from the book which bears his name. It is
   chiefly interesting from the two-fold character in which he
   appears, (1) as a missionary to heathen Nineveh, and (2) as a
   type of the "Son of man."
   

Jonah, or Jonas, a dove; he that oppresses; destroyer