| Library / English Dictionary |
SHARK
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Any of numerous elongate mostly marine carnivorous fishes with heterocercal caudal fins and tough skin covered with small toothlike scales
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("shark" is a kind of...):
elasmobranch; selachian (any of numerous fishes of the class Chondrichthyes characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton and placoid scales: sharks; rays; skates)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shark"):
cow shark; Hexanchus griseus; six-gilled shark (large primitive shark widely distributed in warm seas)
mackerel shark (fierce pelagic and oceanic sharks)
Alopius vulpinus; fox shark; thrasher; thresher; thresher shark (large pelagic shark of warm seas with a whiplike tail used to round up small fish on which to feed)
carpet shark; Orectolobus barbatus (shark of the western Pacific with flattened body and mottled skin)
Ginglymostoma cirratum; nurse shark (small bottom-dwelling shark of warm shallow waters on both coasts of North America and South America and from southeast Asia to Australia)
Carcharias taurus; Odontaspis taurus; sand shark; sand tiger (shallow-water shark with sharp jagged teeth found on both sides of Atlantic; sometimes dangerous to swimmers)
Rhincodon typus; whale shark (large spotted shark of warm surface waters worldwide; resembles a whale and feeds chiefly on plankton)
cat shark (small bottom-dwelling sharks with cat-like eyes; found along continental slopes)
requiem shark (any of numerous sharks from small relatively harmless bottom-dwellers to large dangerous oceanic and coastal species)
dogfish (any of several small sharks)
hammerhead; hammerhead shark (medium-sized live-bearing shark with eyes at either end of a flattened hammer-shaped head; worldwide in warm waters; can be dangerous)
angel shark; angelfish; monkfish; Squatina squatina (sharks with broad flat bodies and winglike pectoral fins but that swim the way sharks do)
Derivation:
shark (hunt shark)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A person who is unusually skilled in certain ways
Example:
a card shark
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("shark" is a kind of...):
expert (a person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A person who is ruthless and greedy and dishonest
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("shark" is a kind of...):
offender; wrongdoer (a person who transgresses moral or civil law)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shark"):
loan shark; moneylender; shylock; usurer (someone who lends money at excessive rates of interest)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Hunt shark
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
Hypernyms (to "shark" is one way to...):
fish (catch or try to catch fish or shellfish)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Sentence example:
In the summer they like to go out and shark
Derivation:
shark (any of numerous elongate mostly marine carnivorous fishes with heterocercal caudal fins and tough skin covered with small toothlike scales)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Play the shark; act with trickery
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "shark" is one way to...):
cheat; chisel (engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Context examples:
The paper contains the first reconstructions of ancient relatives of elephants and large apex predators such as sharks, crocodilians and sea snakes.
(Ancient Saharan seaway illustrates how Earth’s climate and creatures can undergo extreme change, National Science Foundation)
P. damselae is an opportunistic pathogen that has been isolated from infectious sites in damselfishes, sharks, dolphins, and humans.
(Photobacterium damselae, NCI Thesaurus)
Sharks, tuna, marlin and other large fish species were at particular risk, scientists said, with many vital ecosystems in danger of collapse.
(Oceans running out of oxygen at unprecedented rate, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Four types of fish should be avoided because of typically high mercury levels — tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico, shark, swordfish, and king mackerel.
(Brain benefits of aerobic exercise lost to mercury exposure, NIH)
The offshore reefs provide habitat and feeding grounds for large numbers of fish, including top predators such as sharks and groupers.
(Microbes reflect the health of coral reefs, National Science Foundation)
They dated the fossil to the Cretaceous period, roughly 99 million years ago, the same period as Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and early mammals, sharks, and flowering plants.
(Cretaceous baby snake fossil found in Myanmar, Wikinews)
An orally available nutritional supplement and proprietary formulation containing extracts from the sea cucumber, sea sponge, shark fin, sea urchin and the marine grass Sargassum, with potential antioxidant, antitumor, anti-angiogenic and immunomodulating activities.
(Nutraceutical TBL-12, NCI Thesaurus)
Scientists from the University of Miami and Apex Shark Expeditions published a study, documenting the disappearance of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) from a specific area off the coast of South Africa.
(Study indicates as great white shark disappears, living fossil moves in, Wikinews)
One of the most abundant widespread peptides in the nervous system and found in some adrenal medulla chromaffin cells, NPY is one of the most highly conserved peptides known; only 3 amino acid differences exist between human and shark.
(Neuropeptide Y, NCI Thesaurus)
He would be away, in the South Seas, building his grass house, trading for pearls and copra, jumping reefs in frail outriggers, catching sharks and bonitas, hunting wild goats among the cliffs of the valley that lay next to the valley of Taiohae.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
