CARP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does carp mean? 

• CARP (noun)
  The noun CARP has 2 senses:

1. the lean flesh of a fish that is often farmed; can be baked or braised

2. any of various freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae

  Familiarity information: CARP used as a noun is rare.

• CARP (verb)
  The verb CARP has 1 sense:

1. raise trivial objections

  Familiarity information: CARP used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CARP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The lean flesh of a fish that is often farmed; can be baked or braised

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

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

freshwater fish (flesh of fish from fresh water used as food)

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

Cyprinus carpio; domestic carp (large Old World freshwater bottom-feeding fish introduced into Europe from Asia; inhabits ponds and sluggish streams and often raised for food; introduced into United States where it has become a pest)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of various freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

cyprinid; cyprinid fish (soft-finned mainly freshwater fishes typically having toothless jaws and cycloid scales)

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

Cyprinus carpio; domestic carp (large Old World freshwater bottom-feeding fish introduced into Europe from Asia; inhabits ponds and sluggish streams and often raised for food; introduced into United States where it has become a pest)

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

Cyprinidae; family Cyprinidae (a family of fish including: carp; tench; roach; rudd; dace)

• CARP (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they carp    ... he / she / it carps   
Past simple: carped   
Past participle: carped   
-ing form: carping   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Raise trivial objections

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

carp; cavil; chicane

Hypernyms (to "carp" is one way to...):

object (express or raise an objection or protest or criticism or express dissent)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

carper (someone who constantly criticizes in a petty way)

 Context examples 

Have I not already heard you vow to eat two carp in one day, and now you would venture upon a third?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I mean the timorous or carping few who doubt the tendency of such books as Jane Eyre: in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong; whose ears detect in each protest against bigotry—that parent of crime—an insult to piety, that regent of God on earth.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I am in the keeping of James of Compostella, to whose shrine I shall make pilgrimage, and in whose honor I vow that I will eat a carp each year upon his feast-day.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After a hearty meal and a dip in the trough to wash the dust from them, they strolled forth into the bailey, where the bowman peered about through the darkness at wall and at keep, with the carping eyes of one who has seen something of sieges, and is not likely to be satisfied.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A long, straggling troop bore spades and mattocks while the two rearmost of all staggered along under a huge basket o' fresh-caught carp, for the morrow was Friday, and there were fifty platters to be filled and as many sturdy trenchermen behind them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Of whom, cried Sir Oliver, I look more particularly to St. James of Compostella, who hath already befriended us this day, and on whose feast I hereby vow that I shall eat a second carp, if he will but interpose a second time.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)