Dictionaries › English

crayfish

Pronunciation: /ˈkɹeɪˌfɪʃ/

The English word “crayfish” has 6 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamily Astacoidea or Parastacoidea, resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller.
  2. A freshwater crustacean (family Cambaridae), sometimes used as an inexpensive seafood or as fish bait.
  3. A rock lobster (family Palinuridae).
  4. A freshwater crayfish (family Parastacidae), such as the gilgie, marron, or yabby.
  5. The species Thenus orientalis of the slipper lobster family (Scyllaridae).

verb

  1. To catch crayfish.

Etymology

Alteration (by folk etymological influence of fish) of Middle English crevis (whence modern dialectal crevis), from Old French crevice ("crayfish"; > Modern French: écrevisse), from Frankish *krebitja (“crayfish”), diminutive of Frankish *krebit (“crab”), from Proto-Germanic *krabitaz (“crab, cancer”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ-, *grebʰ- (“to scratch, crawl”), or from a substrate…

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “crayfish” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.