crawfish

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun tiny lobster-like crustaceans usually boiled briefly
noun small freshwater decapod crustacean that resembles a lobster
noun large edible marine crustacean having a spiny carapace but lacking the large pincers of true lobsters

1620s, folk etymology from Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice (French écrevisse), influenced by fish. Compare crayfish.

Here and there a duet of three staccato blasts indicated that neighbors were threatening to collide and were crawfishing to the best of their ability. — Blow The Man Down: A Romance Of The Coast, Holman Day
I crawfished as fast as I could about two yards, but the boat slanted so that I couldn’t make very good time; so to keep from getting run over and catched I crawled into a stateroom on the upper side. — Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
I went into the out-house to look about me; and the very same lobsters, crabs, and crawfish possessed by the same desire to pinch the world in general, appeared to be in the same state of conglomeration in the same old corner. — David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

crayfish, crawdad, ecrevisse

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