shrimp

Pronunciation: /ʃɹɪmp/

The English word “shrimp” has 7 meanings listed here.

noun

Any of many swimming, often edible, crustaceans, chiefly of the infraorder Caridea or the suborder Dendrobranchiata, with slender legs, long whiskers and a long abdomen.
The flesh of such crustaceans.
A small, puny or unimportant person.
Synonym of butterface
A small penis.

verb

To fish for shrimp.
To contract; to shrink.

Etymology

From Middle English schrimpe (“shrimp, puny person”), possibly from or related to Middle Low German schrempen (“to wrinkle”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaz (“shrivelled”), from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną (“to shrivel”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerbʰ-. See also Middle High German schrimpf (“a scratch, minor wound”), Norwegian skramp (“thin horse, thin man”); also Old English…

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