LOBSTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lobster mean? 

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

1. flesh of a lobster

2. any of several edible marine crustaceans of the families Homaridae and Nephropsidae and Palinuridae

  Familiarity information: LOBSTER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LOBSTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Flesh of a lobster

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

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

shellfish (meat of edible aquatic invertebrate with a shell (especially a mollusk or crustacean))

Meronyms (parts of "lobster"):

coral (unfertilized lobster roe; reddens in cooking; used as garnish or to color sauces)

tomalley (edible greenish substance in boiled lobster)

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

American lobster; Maine lobster; Northern lobster (flesh of cold-water lobsters having large tender claws; caught from Maine to the Carolinas)

European lobster (similar to but smaller than American lobsters)

langoustine; Norwegian lobster; scampo (caught in European waters; slenderer than American lobster)

lobster tail (lobster tail meat; usually from spiny rock lobsters)

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

true lobster (large edible marine crustaceans having large pincers on the first pair of legs)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of several edible marine crustaceans of the families Homaridae and Nephropsidae and Palinuridae

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

decapod; decapod crustacean (crustaceans characteristically having five pairs of locomotor appendages each joined to a segment of the thorax)

Meronyms (parts of "lobster"):

pleopod; swimmeret (one of the paired abdominal appendages of certain aquatic crustaceans that function primarily for carrying the eggs in females and are usually adapted for swimming)

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

true lobster (large edible marine crustaceans having large pincers on the first pair of legs)

Nephrops norvegicus; Norway lobster (edible European lobster resembling the American lobster but slenderer)

crawfish; crayfish; langouste; rock lobster; sea crawfish; spiny lobster (large edible marine crustacean having a spiny carapace but lacking the large pincers of true lobsters)

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

Reptantia; suborder Reptantia (lobsters; crabs)

 Context examples 

By and by, I saw him, with the majority of a lobster on his plate, eating his dinner at the feet of Dora!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"Then I must have a lobster, for tongue alone won't do," said Amy decidedly.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The hard outer shell of shrimp, lobsters, and many insects is made of chitin.

(Chitin, NCI Dictionary)

Indeed, it turned out that these invertebrates, especially lobsters and sea stars, are an important part of the nitrogen cycle in coastal ecosystems.

(In search of an undersea kelp forest's missing nitrogen, National Science Foundation)

The new findings have important implications for fisheries and lobster farming, which require healthy coastal ecosystems, including seagrass beds, to thrive.

(Microbe diversity is key to healthy coastal ecosystems, National Science Foundation)

He is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The site is known for its cache of delicate marine specimens from the Early Jurassic –- such as lobsters and vampire squids with their ink sacs still intact — preserved in slabs of black shale.

(Fossils may need air to form, National Science Foundation)

“By St. Christopher! it is indeed a fair and goodly life which you have chosen, for you gather up the spoil as a Warsash man gathers lobsters, without grace or favor from any man.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The technology mixes chitosan —a natural polymer extracted from the shell of crustaceans such as shrimp, lobsters, and crabs— with quaternary ammonium salts, chemical compounds that have antimicrobial properties and are commonly used in controlled concentrations in food industries and as domestic sanitisers.

(Protective bio-shell could extend egg shelf life, SciDev.Net)

If we bought a lobster, it was full of water.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)