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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
crayfish
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But the crayfish tail circuit, more redundant than it perhaps needed to be, was error free.
▪ Cooks in the households of Norman seaside towns do not, he says, have freshwater crayfish at their disposal.
▪ For instance, it softens the shells of crayfish, and exposes them to disease.
▪ I then went off for lunch which was soup and crayfish.
▪ Many invertebrates, such as crayfish, can not survive without a certain level of calcium, and are completely absent.
▪ The invertebrates include quite large creatures, such as freshwater shrimps and crayfish.
▪ There are the crayfish and the creamy quenelles and the charcuterie which still belong a little to Lyon.
▪ They are like crayfish, unable to walk in a straight line.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Crayfish

Crayfish \Cray"fish\ (kr[=a]"f[i^]sh), n. (Zo["o]l.) See Crawfish.

Crayfish

Crawfish \Craw"fish`\ (kr[add]"f[i^]sh`), Crayfish \Cray"fish`\ (kr[=a]"f[i^]sh`), n.; pl. -fishes or -fish. [Corrupted fr. OE. crevis, creves, OF. crevice, F. ['e]crevisse, fr. OHG. krebiz crab, G. krebs. See Crab. The ending -fish arose from confusion with E. fish.] (Zo["o]l.) Any decapod crustacean of the family Astacid[ae] (genera Cambarus and Cambarus), resembling the lobster, but smaller, and found in fresh waters. Crawfishes are esteemed very delicate food both in Europe and America. The North American species are numerous and mostly belong to the genus Cambarus. The blind crawfish of the Mammoth Cave is Cambarus pellucidus. The common European species is Astacus fluviatilis.

Syn: crawdad, crawdaddy.

2. tiny lobsterlike crustaceans usually boiled briefly.

Syn: crawdad, ecrevisse.

3. a large edible marine crustacean having a spiny carapace but lacking the large pincers of true lobsters.

Syn: spiny lobster, langouste, rock lobster, crayfish, sea crawfish.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
crayfish

"small, freshwater lobster," early 14c., crevis, from Old French crevice "crayfish" (13c., Modern French écrevisse), probably from Frankish *krebitja or a similar Germanic word that is a diminutive form of the root of crab (n.1); compare Old High German krebiz "crab, shellfish," German Krebs. Modern spelling is 16c., under influence of fish (n.).

Wiktionary
crayfish

n. 1 Any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamilies ''(taxlink Astacoidea superfamily noshow=1)'' and ''(taxlink Parastacoidea superfamily noshow=1)'', resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller. 2 # (context New England Michigan Wisconsin Minnesota English) A freshwater crustacean (family ''(taxlink Cambaridae family noshow=1)''), sometimes used as an inexpensive seafood or as fish bait. 3 (context AU NZ South Africa English) A rock lobster (family Palinuridae).

WordNet
crayfish
  1. n. warm-water lobsters without claws; those from Australia and South Africa usually marketed as frozen tails; caught also in Florida and California [syn: spiny lobster, langouste, rock lobster]

  2. tiny lobster-like crustaceans usually boiled briefly [syn: crawfish, crawdad, ecrevisse]

  3. small freshwater decapod crustacean that resembles a lobster [syn: crawfish, crawdad, crawdaddy]

  4. large edible marine crustacean having a spiny carapace but lacking the large pincers of true lobsters [syn: spiny lobster, langouste, rock lobster, crawfish, sea crawfish]

  5. [also: crayfishes (pl)]

Wikipedia
Crayfish

Crayfish, also known as crawfish, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, or mudbugs, are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related; taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some species are found in brooks and streams where there is running fresh water, while others thrive in swamps, ditches, and rice paddies. Most crayfish cannot tolerate polluted water, although some species such as Procambarus clarkii are hardier. Crayfish feed on living and dead animals and plants.

Usage examples of "crayfish".

I had agreed the deal with Patrick Evans and checked the share ownership certificate, which showed him to be the sole owner, with sixty-four-sixty-fourths of the shares, I had pictures taken of the catamaran, some with the sails up, others of the saloon with the table laid, a vase of wild flowers and a large Balearic crayfish as the centrepiece.

Every low tide advertises oysters gratis, and occasionally crabs and crayfish for the picking up.

The fishing did not take five minutes, for the crayfish were swarming in the creek.

The banks of the pool were slimy grey mud, and the freshwater crayfish called yabbies lived in the mud.

They gathered watercress and learned to tickle the mountain trout, and hunt for yabbies, the small freshwater crayfish abundant in the mountain streams, so that they would often bring home a bountiful supply.

Slaters and pillbugs are terrestrial crustaceans, related to lobsters and crayfish.

A group of school children tromping along the riverside waved and shouted and held up crayfish for the rafters to have a look at.

That means beignets and crayfish bisque and jambalaya, it means shrimp remoulade, pecan pie, and red beans with rice, it means elegant pompano au papillote, funky file z'herbes, and raw oysters by the dozen, it means grillades for breakfast, a po' boy with chowchow at bedtime, and tubs of gumbo in between.

Enkidu inquired, now comprehending the cryptic reference to crayfish in Amys' first message.

Of crayfishes also here wanted no plenty, and they of exceeding bigness, one whereof was sufficient for four hungry stomachs at a dinner, being also very good and restoring meat, whereof we had experience: and they dig themselves holes in the earth like coneys.

Behind it, servants brought poached trout and loach, a broth of bacon and onions, a tile of chicken and pork in a spicy sauce and garnished with whole almonds and crayfish, pastries filled with goose liver or fish roe or the flaked flesh of bream or eels, and at last a monstrous caldron of blamangershredded chicken and whole barley grains simmered to a consistency of library paste in almond milk with salt and honey and anise and garnished with fried almonds.

Afterwards, Storm lay John in the apple basket that served as a portable cradle and they ate crayfish, pulling the long luscious sticks of white meat from the horny legs and washing it down with the tart white Cape wine.

That evening they dined on no less than nine courses of exquisitely prepared seafood, from succulently sauteed abalone to grilled crayfish, choked with fiery hot chili sauce that made even Nangi's eyes water, made him long for the relative calm of wasabi—.

He was the first to make force-meat of fish, or of oysters of various kinds or similar shell-fish, or of lobsters, crayfish, and squills.

He was beginning to recover the whole feel of the bay: on the starboard beam there was a rock where they used to catch gurnards, and on the bow the cluster of islets where they took crayfish at low tide - a white mass of breakers now.