shark
Forms
- Plural
- sharks
- present (v1)
- shark
- past (v2)
- sharked
- past participle (v3)
- sharked
- present participle
- sharking
- 3rd person singular
- sharks
Definitions
1.Any predatory fish of the superorder Selachimorpha, with a cartilaginous skeleton and 5 to 7 gill slits on each side of its head.
2.Meat of this animal, consumed as food.
- Do not eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish due to their high levels of mercury.
- In the past, people did not like to eat shark because they thought sharks ate the bodies of dead sailors.
- Shark has traditionally, although in some secrecy, been a staple food in European, American and Australian food.
3.Any fish of the class Chondrichthyes, especially an extinct shark-like holocephalian.
4.A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.
1.Of a university student who is not a fresher (first-year undergraduate), and especially towards the start of the academic year:
Frequency
Overall
Rare· #4298
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English shark (used by Thomas Beckington in 1442 to refer to a kind of fish), of uncertain origin. Most likely from a semantic extension of the German-derived shark (“scoundrel”), see below. The fish was originally called a dogfish or haye in English and Middle English. Its name in Old English is unknown, although some uses of the word hranfisċ that do not appear to carry the sense of "whale" may have been referencing it. alternative theories