Definitions

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

  • noun A large freshwater fish (Esox masquinongy) of the northern United States and southern Canada that is closely related to the northern pike and is valued as a game fish.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A large American pike (Esox masquinongy formerly Esox nobilior) found in the Great Lakes, and other Northern lakes, and in the St. Lawrence River. It is valued as a food fish.

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

  • noun A large freshwater gamefish of the pike family, native to the lakes and rivers of eastern and middle western North America; Esox masquinongy.

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

  • noun large (60 to 80 pounds) sport fish of North America
  • noun flesh of very large North American pike; a game fish

Etymologies

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

[Canadian French maskinongé, from Ojibwa maashkinoozhe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French masque allongé ("long mask"), a corruption of Ojibwe maashkinoozhe ("ugly pike").

Support

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Examples

  • One thing I had a problem with was your calling your neighbor states muskellunge record a fake.

    Wave of the Future? John Merwin 2008

  • That has never been satisfactorily proven and NY State still lists the Lawton muskellunge as their state record.

    Wave of the Future? John Merwin 2008

  • How about the naturally occurring tiger-musky, half muskellunge and half northern pike?

    Zorse – The Zebra Horse Hybrid 2006

  • It was, and is, our state's record for a Tiger muskie, a hybrid cross between a muskellunge and a northern pike.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2005

  • A "top" predator is one like a wolf, lion, or muskellunge, not normally preyed upon by anything else while alive and therefore enjoying a uniquely favored form of security.

    Analog Science Fiction and Fact 2004

  • The fish were in splendid condition, and they included wall-eyed pike, pickerel, muskellunge, bass of all varieties, and great northern pike that experts said were larger than had ever before been sent anywhere for exhibition purposes.

    Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

  • Once a twenty pound muskellunge had been caught, and bass were plentiful.

    A Son of the City A Story of Boy Life Herman Gastrell Seely

  • Special emphasis is laid on outfitting for fly fishing, but full instruction is also given to the man who wants to catch pickerel, pike, muskellunge, lake-trout, bass and other fresh-water game fishes.

    Apple Growing M. C. Burritt

  • Colonel discoursed learnedly on the superior sport of muskellunge - fishing, which prompted Bryce to enter into a description of going after swordfish among the islands of the Santa Barbara channel.

    The Valley of the Giants 1918

  • Vainly he hopes for the muskellunge who has just gone somewhere else, but, by the same token, the sure-enough angler is ready to go out next morning, rain or shine, at sunrise.

    How to Cook Fish Myrtle Reed 1892

Comments

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  • Nickname: Muskie

    February 6, 2008

  • "He swings it on the end of its wristband, made in cunningly joined armor plates. It is heavy enough to stun a muskellunge."

    Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, p 192 of the Avon Books paperback edition

    January 28, 2013

  • I keep seeing this word as if it was in Swedish. Not that it makes sense, but muskelunge (Wikipedia says that's an alternate way of spelling it, but it doesn't matter, I see it in muskellunge as well) would mean muscle-kid, or perhaps muscle-offspring. So now my brain is trying to make images of what that would look like...

    January 29, 2013