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mackerel love

mackerel

Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various marine fishes of the family Scombridae, especially Scomber scombrus of the North Atlantic Ocean, a predatory food fish having dark wavy bars on the back and a silvery belly.
  • noun Any of various similar fishes, such as the horse mackerels.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pander or pimp.
  • To fish for or catch mackerel; go on a mackerel voyage.
  • noun In Australia, a fish, Scomber antarcticus, Castln., similar to the chub mackerel, Scomber Japonicus, Houttuyn; in New Zealand, Scomber australasious, Cuv. and Val.
  • noun One of several different fishes of the family Scombridæ, and especially any fish of the genus Scomber.
  • noun The bonito, Sarda chilensis.
  • noun The common mackerel of next to the smallest of the four commercial sizes (large, seconds, tinkers, blinks), which are supposed to indicate respectively four, three, two, and one years of growth.
  • noun (See also frigate-mackerel.)

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

  • noun obsolete A pimp; also, a bawd.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any species of the genus Scomber of the family Scombridae, and of several related genera. They are finely formed and very active oceanic fishes. Most of them are highly prized for food.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See under Chub.
  • noun See under Frigate.
  • noun See under Horse.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the wryneck; -- so called because it arrives in England at the time when mackerel are in season.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the Manx shearwater; -- so called because it precedes the appearance of the mackerel on the east coast of Ireland.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Garfish (a).
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of gull which feed upon or follow mackerel, as the kittiwake.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a very small oceanic gadoid fish of the North Atlantic. It is about an inch and a half long and has four barbels on the upper jaw. It is now considered the young of the genus Onos, or Motella.
  • noun an instrument for creasing the sides of lean mackerel to improve their appearance.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the porbeagle.
  • noun a sky flecked with small white clouds; a cirro-cumulus. See Cloud.

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

  • noun An edible fish of the family Scombridae, often speckled.

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

  • noun flesh of very important usually small (to 18 in) fatty Atlantic fish
  • noun any of various fishes of the family Scombridae

Etymologies

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

[Middle English makerel, from Old French maquerel.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French maquerel, from a Germanic source.

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Examples

  • Another problem with mackerel is that once a prisoner's sentence is up, there's little to do with it -- the fish can't be redeemed for cash, and has little value on the outside.

    Boing Boing 2008

  • The sky was what is called a mackerel sky—rows and rows of faint down-plumes of cloud, just tinted with the midsummer sunset.

    The War of The Worlds H. G. Wells 2009

  • Gavin and Grandad were fishing for mackerel from the harbor wall when the seal popped its head out of the water.

    Excerpt: Inside Grandad by Peter Dickinson 2004

  • The sky was what is called a mackerel sky – rows and rows of faint down-plumes of cloud, just tinted with the midsummer sunset.

    The War of The Worlds by H. G. Wells: Part 3 | Solar Flare: Science Fiction News 2005

  • The sky was what is called a mackerel sky — rows and rows of faint down-plumes of cloud, just tinted with the midsummer sunset.

    The War of the Worlds Herbert George 2006

  • Saba, otherwise known as mackerel, is a staple for me.

    Archive 2005-07-01 2005

  • Saba, otherwise known as mackerel, is a staple for me.

    Saba-Weekday style for the Doc 2005

  • This latter method of splitting is known as mackerel splitting.

    Chapter 5 1982

  • Scilly Isles, I saw an even more remarkable duel between a porbeagle -- as the Cornish people call the mackerel-shark -- and a pipit, in which, strange to relate, the bird came off victorious.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, March 26, 1919 Various

  • The sky was what is called a mackerel sky -- rows and rows of faint down-plumes of cloud, just tinted with the midsummer sunset.

    The War of the Worlds 1906

Comments

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  • chained_bear commented on the word mackerel

    The H.M.S. Mackerel was listed as a "transport" captured at Yorktown in 1781. Let me take this opportunity to say that I love that there was a ship named Mackerel. I wonder if it was holy.

    October 29, 2007

  • reesetee commented on the word mackerel

    Holy...er, cow!

    January 31, 2011

  • bilby commented on the word mackerel

    Keeps your doggerel from getting wet.

    June 3, 2011

  • champagnesque commented on the word mackerel

    This stuff is good.

    June 6, 2011

  • blafferty commented on the word mackerel

    Nice link, reesetee!

    June 6, 2011

  • reesetee commented on the word mackerel

    Thanks! Now I have to run off and tell ruzuzu about it. :-)

    June 6, 2011

  • ruzuzu commented on the word mackerel

    Awesome! Thanks, r.

    June 6, 2011

  • reesetee commented on the word mackerel

    Any time, r.

    June 6, 2011

  • dontcry commented on the word mackerel

    I like it smoked.

    June 7, 2011