SHELLFISH

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Irregular inflected form: shellfishes

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell

Synonyms:

mollusc; mollusk; shellfish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("shellfish" is a kind of...):

invertebrate (any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification)

Meronyms (parts of "shellfish"):

carapace; cuticle; shell; shield (hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles)

shellfish (meat of edible aquatic invertebrate with a shell (especially a mollusk or crustacean))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shellfish"):

scaphopod (burrowing marine mollusk)

gastropod; univalve (a class of mollusks typically having a one-piece coiled shell and flattened muscular foot with a head bearing stalked eyes)

chiton; coat-of-mail shell; polyplacophore; sea cradle (primitive elongated bilaterally symmetrical marine mollusk having a mantle covered with eight calcareous plates)

bivalve; lamellibranch; pelecypod (marine or freshwater mollusks having a soft body with platelike gills enclosed within two shells hinged together)

cephalopod; cephalopod mollusk (marine mollusk characterized by well-developed head and eyes and sucker-bearing tentacles)

Holonyms ("shellfish" is a member of...):

Mollusca; phylum Mollusca (gastropods; bivalves; cephalopods; chitons)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Meat of edible aquatic invertebrate with a shell (especially a mollusk or crustacean)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("shellfish" is a kind of...):

seafood (edible fish (broadly including freshwater fish) or shellfish or roe etc)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shellfish"):

escallop; scallop; scollop (edible muscle of mollusks having fan-shaped shells; served broiled or poached or in salads or cream sauces)

crayfish; langouste; rock lobster; spiny lobster (warm-water lobsters without claws; those from Australia and South Africa usually marketed as frozen tails; caught also in Florida and California)

lobster (flesh of a lobster)

limpet (mollusk with a low conical shell)

crawdad; crawfish; crayfish; ecrevisse (tiny lobster-like crustaceans usually boiled briefly)

crab; crabmeat (the edible flesh of any of various crabs)

cockle (common edible European bivalve)

clam (flesh of either hard-shell or soft-shell clams)

huitre; oyster (edible body of any of numerous oysters)

mussel (black marine bivalves usually steamed in wine)

Holonyms ("shellfish" is a part of...):

mollusc; mollusk; shellfish (invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell)

Credits

Context examples:

The increasing load of carbon dioxide in the ocean interior is already having an impact on the shellfish industry, particularly along the U.S. West Coast, said Richard Feely of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, leader of NOAA’s West Coast acidification observing network and a co-author of the study.

(Global ocean is absorbing more carbon from fossil fuel emissions, NOAA)

Seas are about 26% more acidic than in pre-industrial times because of absorbing the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with damaging impacts on shellfish in particular.

(Oceans running out of oxygen at unprecedented rate, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Did they walk by the beach of a sea, where the hairy man gathered shellfish and ate them as he gathered, it was with eyes that roved everywhere for hidden danger and with legs prepared to run like the wind at its first appearance.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

If this ain't, said Mr. Peggotty, sitting down among us by the fire, the brightest night o' my life, I'm a shellfish—biled too—and more I can't say.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The largest harmful algae bloom ever recorded happened in the summer of 2015 off the West Coast of North America from Alaska to California, and resulted in the closure of fisheries to protect consumers from potential shellfish poisoning.

(Scientists discover genetic basis for how harmful algae blooms become toxic, National Science Foundation)

However, carbon dioxide dissolved into the ocean causes seawater to acidify, threatening the ability of shellfish and corals to build their skeletons, and affecting the health of other fish and marine species — many that are important to coastal economies and food security.

(Global ocean is absorbing more carbon from fossil fuel emissions, NOAA)

Specifically, compared to those in the lowest quartile intake, those in the highest quartile intake of red meat and poultry had a 23 per cent and 15 per cent increase in risk of diabetes, respectively, while the intake of fish/shellfish was not associated with risk of diabetes.

(Eating Meat Linked to Higher Risk of Diabetes, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

I expressed my thanks; and Mr. Peggotty, after looking at Ham, who stood smiling sheepishly over the shellfish, without making any attempt to help him, said: “We come, you see, the wind and tide making in our favour, in one of our Yarmouth lugs to Gravesen”.