BLOWFISH (blowfishes)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: blowfishes   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does blowfish mean? 

• BLOWFISH (noun)
  The noun BLOWFISH has 2 senses:

1. delicacy that is highly dangerous because of a potent nerve poison in ovaries and liver

2. any of numerous marine fishes whose elongated spiny body can inflate itself with water or air to form a globe; several species contain a potent nerve poison; closely related to spiny puffers

  Familiarity information: BLOWFISH used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLOWFISH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Delicacy that is highly dangerous because of a potent nerve poison in ovaries and liver

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

blowfish; puffer; pufferfish; sea squab

Hypernyms ("blowfish" is a kind of...):

saltwater fish (flesh of fish from the sea used as food)

Meronyms (substance of "blowfish"):

tetrodotoxin (a powerful neurotoxin found in the ovaries of pufferfish)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blowfish"):

fugu (a blowfish highly prized as a delicacy in Japan but highly dangerous because the skin and organs are poisonous)

Holonyms ("blowfish" is a part of...):

blowfish; globefish; puffer; pufferfish (any of numerous marine fishes whose elongated spiny body can inflate itself with water or air to form a globe; several species contain a potent nerve poison; closely related to spiny puffers)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of numerous marine fishes whose elongated spiny body can inflate itself with water or air to form a globe; several species contain a potent nerve poison; closely related to spiny puffers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

blowfish; globefish; puffer; pufferfish

Hypernyms ("blowfish" is a kind of...):

plectognath; plectognath fish (tropical marine fishes having the teeth fused into a beak and thick skin covered with bony plates or spines)

Meronyms (parts of "blowfish"):

blowfish; puffer; pufferfish; sea squab (delicacy that is highly dangerous because of a potent nerve poison in ovaries and liver)

Holonyms ("blowfish" is a member of...):

family Tetraodontidae; Tetraodontidae (puffers)

 Context examples 

Well, well, he added, looking round at the walls of the room, here are all my old curios, the same as ever: the narwhal’s horn from the Arctic, and the blowfish from the Moluccas, and the paddles from Fiji, and the picture of the Ca Ira with Lord Hotham in chase.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)