garfish

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun primitive predaceous North American fish covered with hard scales and having long jaws with needlelike teeth

From Middle English garfysche (“garfish”, literally “spear-fish”), from gor (“spear”) + fisch (“fish”). Cognate with Scots gairfish (“garfish”).

Still in vain;--the alligators Scrambled through the marshy brake, And the vampire leeches gaily Sucked the garfish in the lake. — The Book of Ballads: Eleventh Edition, 1870, Theodore, Sir Martin
He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. — Just so stories, Rudyard Kipling

gar, garpike, billfish, Lepisosteus osseus

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