SHELLFISH (shellfishes)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: shellfishes   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does shellfish mean? 

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

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

2. invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell

  Familiarity information: SHELLFISH used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHELLFISH (noun)

Sense 1

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

mollusc; mollusk; shellfish

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"):

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

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

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)

 Context examples 

It is found in liver, meat, eggs, poultry, shellfish, milk, and milk products.

(Cobalamin, NCI Dictionary)

I found some shellfish on the shore, and ate them raw, not daring to kindle a fire, for fear of being discovered by the natives.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It can pass through the food chain and build up in fish, shellfish, and animals that eat fish.

(Mercury, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry)

We transported the shellfish, or the “relish” as Mr. Peggotty had modestly called it, up into our room unobserved, and made a great supper that evening.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A high-dose exposure to domoic acid can lead to amnesic shellfish poisoning, a potentially fatal condition marked by seizures and short-term memory loss.

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

Furthermore, most allergic reactions to common food allergens, such as peanuts or crustacean shellfish, begin about 5 to 30 minutes after a person is exposed.

(NIAID scientists link cases of unexplained anaphylaxis to red meat allergy, National Institutes of Health)

In adults, the foods that most often trigger allergic reactions include fish, shellfish, peanuts, and tree nuts, such as walnuts.

(Food Allergy, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

It is found in shellfish and iodized salt.

(Iodine, NCI Dictionary)

The increase in risk associated with red meat/poultry was reduced by substituting them with fish/shellfish.

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

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are found in seafood, including fatty fish (such as salmon, tuna, and trout) and shellfish (such as crab, mussels, and oysters).

(Omega-3s linked with lower risk of fatal heart attacks, NIH)