oyster

---

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˈɔɪ.stə(ɹ)/
• (GA) IPA: /ˈɔɪ.stɚ/

Noun

oyster (plural oysters)

1. Any of certain marine bivalve mollusks, especially those of the family Ostreidae (the true oysters), usually found adhering to rocks or other fixed objects in shallow water along the seacoasts, or in brackish water in the mouth of rivers.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation, 1841, The Works of Jonathan Swift, Volume 2, page 344 ↗,

     He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.

2. The delicate morsel of dark meat contained in a small cavity of the bone on each side of the lower part of the back of a fowl.
3. A pale beige color tinted with grey or pink, like that of an oyster.

    

4. (colloquial, by analogy) A person who keeps secrets.
5. (UK, slang) A shoplifter.

Translations

• French: huître, huitre (post-1990 spelling)
• German: Auster
• Italian: ostrica
• Portuguese: ostra
• Russian: у́стрица
• Spanish: ostra

Translations

• French: sot-l’y-laisse
• German: Pfaffenschnittchen, Pfaffenstückchen
• Portuguese: marisco
• Russian: у́стрица
• Spanish: ostra

Translations

• Spanish: ostra

Translations

• Russian: за́мкнутый челове́к
• Spanish: tumba

Adjective

oyster

1. Of a pale beige colour tinted with grey or pink, like that of an oyster.

Verb

oyster (oysters, present participle oystering; past and past participle oystered)

1. (intransitive) To fish for oysters.

---

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002