Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Swordfish
Sword′fishˊ
,Noun.
1.
(Zool.)
(a)
A very large oceanic fish (
Xiphias gladius
), the only representative of the family Xiphiidae
. It is highly valued as a food fish. The bones of the upper jaw are consolidated, and form a long, rigid, swordlike beak; the dorsal fin is high and without distinct spines; the ventral fins are absent. The adult is destitute of teeth. It becomes sixteen feet or more long. (b)
The gar pike.
(c)
The cutlass fish.
2.
(Astron.)
A southern constellation. See
Dorado
, 1. Swordfish sucker
(Zool.)
, a remora (
Remora brachyptera
) which attaches itself to the swordfish.Definition 2024
swordfish
swordfish
English
The swordfish.
Noun
swordfish (countable and uncountable, plural swordfish or swordfishes)
- A large marine fish with a long, pointed bill, Xiphias gladius.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
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Translations
Xiphias gladius
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Verb
swordfish (third-person singular simple present swordfishes, present participle swordfishing, simple past and past participle swordfished)
- To fish for swordfish.