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OYSTER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marine mollusks having a rough irregular shell; found on the sea bed mostly in coastal waters
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("oyster" is a kind of...):
bivalve; lamellibranch; pelecypod (marine or freshwater mollusks having a soft body with platelike gills enclosed within two shells hinged together)
Meronyms (parts of "oyster"):
huitre; oyster (edible body of any of numerous oysters)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "oyster"):
seed oyster (a young oyster especially of a size for transplantation)
blue point; bluepoint (small edible oyster typically from the southern shore of Long Island)
Japanese oyster; Ostrea gigas (a large oyster native to Japan and introduced along the Pacific coast of the United States; a candidate for introduction in Chesapeake Bay)
Virginia oyster (common edible oyster of Atlantic coast of North America)
pearl oyster; Pinctada margaritifera (tropical marine bivalve found chiefly off eastern Asia and Pacific coast of North America and Central America; a major source of pearls)
Anomia ephippium; saddle oyster (thin-shelled bivalve having the right valve deeply notched)
capiz; Placuna placenta; window oyster; windowpane oyster (marine bivalve common in Philippine coastal waters characterized by a large thin flat translucent shell)
Holonyms ("oyster" is a member of...):
family Ostreidae; Ostreidae (oysters)
Derivation:
oyster (gather oysters, dig oysters)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A small muscle on each side of the back of a fowl
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("oyster" is a kind of...):
helping; portion; serving (an individual quantity of food or drink taken as part of a meal)
Holonyms ("oyster" is a part of...):
bird; fowl (the flesh of a bird or fowl (wild or domestic) used as food)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Edible body of any of numerous oysters
Synonyms:
huitre; oyster
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("oyster" is a kind of...):
shellfish (meat of edible aquatic invertebrate with a shell (especially a mollusk or crustacean))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "oyster"):
oysters Rockefeller (oysters spread with butter and spinach and seasonings and baked on the half shell)
blue point; bluepoint (oysters originally from Long Island Sound but now from anywhere along the northeastern seacoast; usually eaten raw)
Holonyms ("oyster" is a part of...):
oyster (marine mollusks having a rough irregular shell; found on the sea bed mostly in coastal waters)
Derivation:
oyster (gather oysters, dig oysters)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Gather oysters, dig oysters
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "oyster" is one way to...):
collect; garner; gather; pull together (assemble or get together)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Sentence example:
In the summer they like to go out and oyster
Derivation:
oyster (marine mollusks having a rough irregular shell; found on the sea bed mostly in coastal waters)
oyster (edible body of any of numerous oysters)
Context examples:
On Earth, worms and clams that live in the muddy sea beds require 1 mg per liter, bottom feeders such as crabs and oysters 3 mg per liter, and spawning migratory fish 6 mg per liter, all within 0.2 moles per cubic meter, 6.4 mg per liter.
(Simple animals could live in Martian brines, Wikinews)
With an alacrity beyond the common impulse of a spirit which yet was never indifferent to the credit of doing every thing well and attentively, with the real good-will of a mind delighted with its own ideas, did she then do all the honours of the meal, and help and recommend the minced chicken and scalloped oysters, with an urgency which she knew would be acceptable to the early hours and civil scruples of their guests.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Shall the world, then, be overrun by oysters?
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Do you know, Copperfield, said Traddles, cheerfully examining the dish, I think it is in consequence—they are capital oysters, but I think it is in consequence—of their never having been opened.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The scientific celebrities, forgetting their mollusks and glacial periods, gossiped about art, while devoting themselves to oysters and ices with characteristic energy; the young musician, who was charming the city like a second Orpheus, talked horses; and the specimen of the British nobility present happened to be the most ordinary man of the party.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
A little occasional talk about half-crowns, oysters, or any other extraneous subject produces a pleasing effect of delirium.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I had emerged by another door, and stood in the street for a little while, as if I really were a stranger upon earth: but the unceremonious pushing and hustling that I received, soon recalled me to myself, and put me in the road back to the hotel; whither I went, revolving the glorious vision all the way; and where, after some porter and oysters, I sat revolving it still, at past one o'clock, with my eyes on the coffee-room fire.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He took out of his pocket the most respectable hunting-watch I ever saw, and preventing the spring with his thumb from opening far, looked in at the face as if he were consulting an oracular oyster, shut it up again, and said, if I pleased, it was half past eight.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Joining these groups, I found bewailing women whose husbands were away in herring or oyster boats, which there was too much reason to think might have foundered before they could run in anywhere for safety.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
