The Collaborative International Dictionary
Barracuda \Bar`ra*cu"da\, Barracouta \Bar`ra*cou"ta\,, n. [Native name.] (Zo["o]l.) Any of several voracious pikelike marine fishes allied to the gray mullets, constituting the genus Sphyr[ae]na and family Sphyr[ae]nid[ae]. The great barracuda ( Sphyr[ae]na barracuda) of the West Indies, Florida, etc., is often six feet or more long, and as dangerous as a shark. In Cuba its flesh is reputed to be poisonous. Sphyr[ae]na Argentea of the Pacific coast and Sphyr[ae]na sphyr[ae]na of Europe are smaller species, and are used as food.
Note: That of Europe and our Atlantic coast is Sphyr[ae]na spet (or Sphyr[ae]na vulgaris); a southern species is Sphyr[ae]na picuda; the Californian is Sphyr[ae]na argentea.
2. (Zo["o]l.) A large edible fresh-water fish of Australia and New Zealand ( Thyrsites atun).
Wiktionary
n. (context Australia English) The snoek, ''Thyrsites atun'', a foodfish.
Usage examples of "barracouta".
The barracouta ignored the lines but some, like those luckless springbok of the giant herds which impale themselves on barbed wire while the others push until the wire breaks, got caught up in the hooks.
I saw one of the boat keepers astern catch a large barracouta, and eat it alive —indeed, if I had not given the strictest orders, and flogged half-a-dozen of them, I doubt whether they would not have eaten their victuals raw to this day.