different between catfish vs crayfish

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From cat +? fish. Likely so named for its prominent barbels like a cat's whiskers.

Noun

catfish (countable and uncountable, plural catfish or catfishes)

1. any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and having barbels like whiskers around the mouth

   Synonyms: (Africa) catlet, sheat, sheatfish, river chicken

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

catfish (third-person singular simple present catfishes, present participle catfishing, simple past and past participle catfished)

1. To fish for catfish

   I only use this rod for catfishing.

See also

• noodling

Etymology 2

From the 2010 documentary Catfish, supposedly inspired by the practice of fishermen keeping cod active by storing them with catfish (see sense 1) which nip at their tails.

Noun

catfish (plural catfishes)

1. (Internet) Someone who creates a fake profile on a social media platform in order to deceive people.
2. (Internet) Such a fake profile.

Translations

Verb

catfish (third-person singular simple present catfishes, present participle catfishing, simple past and past participle catfished)

1. (Internet, slang, transitive) To create and operate a fake online profile to deceive (someone).
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:catfish.

Translations

Derived terms

• wokefish
• blackfish

See also

• catshark

English

Alternative forms

• crawfish; craifish (obsolete), crafish, crefish (obsolete); crevis, crevice, crevyssh (obsolete)

Etymology

Alteration (by folk etymology, influenced by fish) of Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice ("crayfish"; > Modern French: écrevisse), from Frankish *krebitja (“crayfish”), diminutive of Frankish *krebit (“crab”), from Proto-Germanic *krabitaz (“crab, cancer”), from Proto-Indo-European *greb?-, *gereb?- (“to scratch, crawl”). Akin to Old High German krebiz ("edible crustacean, crab"; > Modern German Krebs (“crab”)), Middle Low German kr?vet (“crab”), Dutch kreeft (“crayfish, lobster”), Old English crabba (“crab”). More at crab.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?e??f??/

Noun

crayfish (plural crayfishes or crayfish)

1. Any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea, resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller.
   1. (New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota) A freshwater crustacean (family Cambaridae), sometimes used as an inexpensive seafood or as fish bait.
2. (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) A rock lobster (family Palinuridae).
3. (Singapore) The species Thenus orientalis of the slipper lobster family.

Usage notes

The term crayfish predominates in the region of New England and in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In much of the United States—in the South, especially in Louisiana and Texas; in the Midwest and in the West—crawfish predominates. In a belt stretching across Kentucky through Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and in Oregon and northern California, the term crawdad predominates.

Synonyms

• (freshwater crustaceans): crawdad, crawldad, crawfish, crawlfish, mudbug, yabby (Australia)

Derived terms

• crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci)

Translations

Verb

crayfish (third-person singular simple present crayfishes, present participle crayfishing, simple past and past participle crayfished)

1. to catch crayfish
2. Alternative form of crawfish (to backpedal, desert, or withdraw)

Translations

See also

• lobster
• prawn
• shrimp
• yabby

References

Further reading

• crayfish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• crayfish at OneLook Dictionary Search