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Oyster   /ˈɔɪstər/   Listen
noun
Oyster  n.  
1.
(Zool.) Any marine bivalve mollusk of the genus Ostrea. They are usually found adhering to rocks or other fixed objects in shallow water along the seacoasts, or in brackish water in the mouth of rivers. The common European oyster (Ostrea edulis), and the American oyster (Ostrea Virginiana), are the most important species.
2.
A name popularly given to the delicate morsel contained in a small cavity of the bone on each side of the lower part of the back of a fowl.
Fresh-water oyster (Zool.), any species of the genus Etheria, and allied genera, found in rivers of Africa and South America. They are irregular in form, and attach themselves to rocks like oysters, but they have a pearly interior, and are allied to the fresh-water mussels.
Oyster bed, a breeding place for oysters; a place in a tidal river or other water on or near the seashore, where oysters are deposited to grow and fatten for market. See 1st Scalp, n.
Oyster catcher (Zool.), See oystercatcher in the vocabulary.
Oyster crab (Zool.) a small crab (Pinnotheres ostreum) which lives as a commensal in the gill cavity of the oyster.
Oyster dredge, a rake or small dragnet for bringing up oysters from the bottom of the sea.
Oyster fish. (Zool.)
(a)
The tautog.
(b)
The toadfish.
Oyster plant. (Bot.)
(a)
A plant of the genus Tragopogon (Tragopogon porrifolius), the root of which, when cooked, somewhat resembles the oyster in taste; salsify; called also vegetable oyster.
(b)
A plant found on the seacoast of Northern Europe, America and Asia (Mertensia maritima), the fresh leaves of which have a strong flavor of oysters.
Oyster plover. (Zool.) Same as oystercatcher.
Oyster shell (Zool.), the shell of an oyster.
Oyster wench, Oyster wife, Oyster women, a women who deals in oysters.
Pearl oyster. (Zool.) See under Pearl.
Thorny oyster (Zool.), any spiny marine shell of the genus Spondylus.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Oyster" Quotes from Famous Books



... owl, the stupidest of birds, comes to be considered the very type of wisdom. This, by the way, is a casual remark, which I would not, for the universe, have it thought I apply to Governor Van Twiller. It is true he was a man shut up within himself, like an oyster, and rarely spoke, except in monosyllables; but then it was allowed he seldom said a foolish thing. So invincible was his gravity that he was never known to laugh or even to smile through the whole course of a long and prosperous life. Nay, if a joke were uttered in his presence ...
— Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor - Volume I • Various

... paper bands, or with Paris green showered in water. The round-headed apple-tree borer is to be cut out, and the eggs excluded with a sheet of tarred paper around the stem, and slightly sunk in the earth. For the oyster-shell bark louse, apply linseed oil. Paris green, in water, will kill the canker worm. Tobacco water does the work for plant lice. Peach-tree borers are excluded with tarred or felt paper, and cut out with a knife. Jar the grape flea beetle on an inverted umbrella ...
— Scientific American Supplement No. 275 • Various

... part," replied H., "because the more you enlarge a person's general capacity of feeling, and his quantity of being, the more you enlarge his capacity of suffering. A man can suffer more than an oyster. Christianity, by enlarging the scope of man's heart, and dignifying his nature, has deepened ...
— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... the women are made by themselves of the bark of a small tree which they find in the neighbourhood. Their hooks are made of the mother-of-pearl oyster, which they rub on a stone until it assumes the shape they want. It must be remarked, that these hooks are not barbed; they nevertheless catch fish with ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins

... waves prolific Volvox dwells, And five descendants crowd his lucid cells; So the male Polypus parental swims, And branching infants bristle all his limbs; So the lone Taenia, as he grows, prolongs His flatten'd form with young adherent throngs; Unknown to sex the pregnant oyster swells, And coral-insects build their radiate shells; 90 Parturient Sires caress their infant train, And heaven-born STORGE weaves the social chain; Successive births her tender cares combine, And soft ...
— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin


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