Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various Eurasian and African freshwater fishes of the family Cobitidae and related families of the order Cypriniformes, having barbels around the mouth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small European fish, Cobitis (Nemachilus) barbatula, of the family Cobitidæ; hence, any fish of that family.
  • noun A European fresh-water gadoid fish, the burbot or eel-pout, Lota maculosa. See cut under burbot.
  • noun A simpleton.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several small, fresh-water, cyprinoid fishes of the genera Cobitis, Nemachilus, and allied genera, having six or more barbules around the mouth. They are found in Europe and Asia. The common European species (Nemachilus barbatulus) is used as a food fish.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A bottom-feeding freshwater fish of the family Cobitidae.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun slender freshwater fishes of Eurasia and Africa resembling catfishes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English loche, from Old French, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *laukka, fish, slug, possibly of Celtic origin.]

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Examples

  • It's a good fit for Mr. Noda, who bested more charismatic rivals Banri Kaieda and Seiji Maehara in an election to lead the ruling Democratic Party of Japan partly by likening himself to an ugly stream-dwelling fish called the loach, and who built his platform of unpopular, albeit low-key, planks such as a temporary reconstruction tax.

    With Challenges in Abundance, New Japan Leader Reaches Out Shawn Schroter 2011

  • And the first thing visitors see when they get off the bus is a statue of the company's mascot: the high-fin loach.

    Swimming Upstream Donald Frazier 2010

  • He is conciliatory and self-deprecating, likening himself to a bottom-dwelling scavenger fish called a loach.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Mr Noda compared himself to a bottom-feeding loach fish.

    Speed Dating With Japan's Leaders Michael Auslin 2011

  • Free speech allows loach to say these things but responsibility and common sense needs to be exercised too when words like his are propogated.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • In Lake Tana, which is the source of the Blue Nile in the Ethiopian Highlands, about a quarter of the nearly 65 fish species are endemic, including a loach Nemacheilus abyssinicus and 14 large cyprinid barbs.

    Biological diversity in the Eastern Afromontane 2009

  • I considered getting a new clown loach as I was worried the other one would feel lonely, but the clerk assured me s/he would be ok for a while, they were social but wouldn't die from loneliness either.

    Bah, snow. magnio 2008

  • Well Ken loach just called for Blair and his cabinet to stand trial in the Hague and got an ovation on radio 4.

    EXCLUSIVE: Has the Government Gagged the Beeb? 2007

  • Another loach buzzed in to do a battle-damage assessment, poking around a bit until he amazingly took some scattered fire.

    Again to Carthage Jr. John L. Parker 2007

  • When there were enough resources to send a loach over, Skeeter set off a smoke marker but he was nowhere near a clearing and the place was still crawling with enemy.

    Again to Carthage Jr. John L. Parker 2007

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