Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of numerous often brightly colored marine fishes of the family Labridae, having spiny fins and thick lips and valued for food and for home aquariums.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In New Zealand, Pseudolabrus bothryocosmus. Called also poddly, spotty, and kelp-fish.
- noun An acanthopterygian teleost fish of the family Labridæ; any labrid, or labroid fish, having thick fleshy lips, strong sharp teeth, and usually brilliant coloration. See
parrot-fish (with cut).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous edible, marine, spiny-finned fishes of the genus Labrus, of which several species are found in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Many of the species are bright-colored.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any one of numerous edible, marine, spiny-finned fishes of the genus Labrus, of which several species are found in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Many of the species are bright-colored.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun chiefly tropical marine fishes with fleshy lips and powerful teeth; usually brightly colored
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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When a wrasse tends a great grouper, the little cleaner sometimes swims into the gill chambers and mouth, demonstrating remarkable faith that it is not going to be eaten.
SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011
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In the 10-year period in question, 33 new fish species have been found in the waters around the island, including the damselfish, a strikingly brilliant blue wrasse and seven species of zig-zag rainbow fish, an 11cm-long creature which lives in shallow waters.
Conservationists discover more than 1,000 species in New Guinea 2011
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In the 10-year period in question, 33 new fish species have been found in the waters around the island, including the damselfish, a strikingly brilliant blue wrasse and seven species of zig-zag rainbow fish, an 11cm-long creature which lives in shallow waters.
Conservationists discover more than 1,000 species in New Guinea 2011
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The cleaner wrasse gets its dinner by plucking parasites off the bodies of its “client” fishes, even from inside the mouths.
SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011
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Potassium cyanide is squirted directly at target fish species such as grouper or Napoleon wrasse, paralyzing them and enabling them to be collected alive.
James Morgan: Cyanide Fishing in the Coral Triangle (Photos) James Morgan 2011
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Dentex and rainbow-colored wrasse snuffle the white sand below, stirring up a meal, while tiger-striped gobies lay among the rocks, waiting to snap the smaller fish up in turn.
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Indeed, the punsters might come over and kick your wrasse.
Making Light: Boomdeyada boomdeyada boomdeyada boomdeyada 2010
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But he stopped short at the aquarium where a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse stared sadly out.
Robert Wintner: Having Our Oceans and Eating Them Too -- Maui County Steps Up to Stop the Carnage Robert Wintner 2010
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Elsewhere, flocks of swans and geese glide in the resort's lagoons and ponds, while the surrounding reef waters are teeming with schools of Maori wrasse, angelfish, marlin and sea turtles.
Yvonne Yorke: The Great Barrier Reef: From Above and Below 2010
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Is an oxpecker a parasite or a helpful scavenger - your basic feathered cleaner wrasse?
The evolution of vampires Darren Naish 2007
madmouth commented on the word wrasse
OED suggests this is a variant on the spelling of "wraths", "wrath" being the name of this fish as derived from Cornish. A beautiful exclamation when a single wrath will not do, also compoundable, e.g. wrasse and ires! Of course it is a different meaning, but beautifully suggestive nonetheless
April 16, 2013
chained_bear commented on the word wrasse
"Few fish bones have survived, but we do have evidence of conger, bream, shark, skate, wrasse, ray, eel, haddock, limpets and other shellfish, most of which would have been impaled on sticks and set over glowing fires to cook."
--Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 12
January 6, 2017