Crayfish

Definition: Crayfish

Crayfish

Noun

1. Warm-water lobsters without claws; those from Australia and South Africa usually marketed as frozen tails; caught also in Florida and California.

2. Tiny lobster-like crustaceans usually boiled briefly.

3. Small freshwater decapod crustacean that resembles a lobster.

4. Large edible marine crustacean having a spiny carapace but lacking the large pincers of true lobsters.

Date "crayfish" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1842. (references)

Domain	Definition
Satire	CRAYFISH, n. A small crustacean very much resembling the lobster, but less indigestible. In this small fish I take it that human wisdom is admirably figured and symbolized; for whereas the crayfish doth move only backward, and can have only retrospection, seeing naught but the perils already passed, so the wisdom of man doth not enable him to avoid the follies that beset his course, but only to apprehend their nature afterward. Sir James Merivale. Source: Devil's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Crayfish, sometimes called crawfish, crawdads, mudbugs, or yabbies, are fresh-water crustaceans (decapoda) resembling small lobsters, to which they are closely related. They have five pairs of legs with the front pair having a set of claws. They are found in most bodies of fresh water that do not freeze to the bottom, and which have shelter against predators. Some crayfish have been found living as much as 3 m (10 feet) underground.

The term is also applied to certain marine species which are more closely allied to the lobsters than to true crayfishes.

In the United States, Cambarus is a common genus of crayfish east of the Rocky Mountains, while Astacus is more common to the west. Zarigani are crayfish indigenous to Japanese rivers and ponds and are grayish in color.

Australian crayfish are (mostly?) of the genus Cherax; and include the Marron (Cherax tenuimanus), Red Claw Crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus), Yabby (Cherax destructor) and Western Yabby (Cherax preissii)

Crayfish as a dish

Crayfish are eaten in Europe, but they are perhaps most popular in Louisiana, where the standard culinary term is crawfish. They are also served in various Cajun dishes in restaurants around the United States. They are usually prepared like lobster, except many more are put into each pot to boil. They may also be fried. There are also specific preparations for crawfish in Cajun and Creole food, the best-known of which are crawfish étouffée, crawfish pie, and crawfish beignets.

Crayfish is a popular dish in Sweden, which by tradition primarily is consumed during the fishing season in August. The catch of domestic fresh water crayfish, and even of an implanted American species is very limited and to satisfy demand the majority of what is consumed has to be imported. Sales depended on imports from Turkey for several decades, but after a decline in supply China and the United States are today the biggest sources of import. On the western coast of Sweden, many tend to prefer the larger salt water crayfish, which is caught in the North Sea.

See also: Swedish cuisine

Synonyms: Crayfish

Synonyms: crawdad (n), crawdaddy (n), crawfish (n), ecrevisse (n), langouste (n), rock lobster (n), sea crawfish (n), spiny lobster (n). (additional references)

Crosswords: Crayfish

English words defined with "crayfish": Astacidae, Astacura, Astacus ♦ Branchiobdella ♦ Decapoda ♦ ecrevisse ♦ family Astacidae ♦ -fish, -fishes ♦ genus Astacus, genus Branchiobdella ♦ Old World crayfish, order Decapoda ♦ rock lobster. (references)

Specialty definitions using "crayfish": pot vessel ♦ Shields. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Freshwater Crayfish Aquaculture in North America, Europe, and Australia: Families Astacidae, Cambaridae, and Parastacidae (reference) Crustacean Immunity: Characterization of Some Crayfish Blood Proteins (Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations, 451) (reference) Characterization of Some Molecules in the Prophenoloxidase-Activating and Clotting Systems in the Freshwater Crayfish Pacifastacus Leniusculus (Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of sciencE and Technology, 522) (reference) Crayfish (Musty Crusty Animals) (reference) (more book examples)

Music	The Best Crayfish In The Brook [IMPORT] (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Crayfish found in a salt water pond near the Patuxent River. Credit: America's Coastlines.		A crayfish home along a Calvert County stream. Crayfish use mud balls to create towers over their holes along freshwater streams. Credit: America's Coastlines.
	Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. A crayfish. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR).		Macro shot of a crayfish. Credit: Carol Kauder.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Sweden	In the fisheries sector, the United States is one of the main suppliers of "Swedish style" crayfish. (references)
	Finland	Medium Priority: - Fresh fruits/vegetables: apples, pears, grapes, cherries, avocados; Food grains: rice; Convenience foods: microwavable items like popcorn; Seafood: salmon, frozen crayfish, whitefish roe; Pet food for dogs and cats. (references)
Trade	France	Products which are subject to restrictive regulations include: hormone-fed beef, poultry meat, enriched flour, genetically engineered foods and crops; "exotic meats" such as alligator and buffalo, crayfish, and certain fruits and vegetables which are subject to seasonal price restrictions. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Crayfish" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.37% of the time. "Crayfish" is used about 38 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	97.37%	37	56,631
Noun (proper)	2.63%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	38	N/A

Expressions using "crayfish": american crayfish ♦ crayfish party ♦ old World crayfish ♦ sea crayfish. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "crayfish"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaans		kreef (lobster). (various references)

Albanian		karkalec deti i madh, karavidhe (crawfish, lobster). (various references)

Arabic		سرطان (cancer), ‏سلطعون النهر, ‏جراد البحر. (various references)

Bulgarian		вид рак (crawfish). (various references)

Catalan		cranc. (various references)

Chinese		小龙虾 (Crawfish). (various references)

Cornish		gavar-mór. (various references)

Czech		rak (crab). (various references)

Danish		krebs (crawfish, freshwater crayfish). (various references)

Dutch		zoetwaterkreeft (crawfish), rivierkreeft (crawfish), kreeft (Cancer, lobster). (various references)

Esperanto		kankro. (various references)

Faeroese		áarkrabbi. (various references)

Finnish		rapu (crawfish). (various references)

French		écrevisse (crawfish). (various references)

German		krebs (barnacle, cancer, canker, crab, crawfish, crustacean), Flußkrebs (crawfish). (various references)

Greek		ποταμοκαραβίδα (crawfish). (various references)

Hebrew		סרטן �"� �"רות (crawfish). (various references)

Hungarian		rák (cancer, crawfish, hard-shell), homár (lobster, sea crayfish), folyami rák (crawfish, fresh-water crayfish). (various references)

Italian		gambero (prawn), gambero di fiume (crawfish), aragosta (lobster). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		サ行 (Classification for Japanese verb with the dictionary form ending in "su", entree, existence, heavy rainfall, hors d'oeuvres, pomelo, rope, sauerkraut, seed, Seidel, shaddock, that's all, that's O.K., that's right, the, Zaire, Zambia, Zamenhof). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ザリガニ . (various references)

Manx		pimprogh, gimmagh voirrey. (various references)

Maori		kooura. (various references)

Norwegian		kreps. (various references)

Pig Latin		ayfishcray.(various references)

Portuguese		caranguejo (crab, crawfish). (various references)

Romanian		rac de râu, langustã (spiny lobster). (various references)

Russian		рак (cancer, carcinoma, crab, crawfish, lobster). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		rak (cancer, canker, carcinoma, clam, crawfish). (various references)

Spanish		cangrejo (crab). (various references)

Sranan		krefti (lobster). (various references)

Swedish		kräfta (cancer, canker, crawfish). (various references)

Turkish		kerevides (crawfish), istakozdan küçük böcek (crawfish). (various references)

Ukrainian		рак (cancer, crawfish). (various references)

Vietnamese		tôm. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	karabos. (various references)
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	Astacidae, Astacus astacus, Astacus astacus(Linnaeus,1758), cancer. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "crayfish": crayfishes. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Crayfish" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: crayfisk. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "crayfish" (pronounced krā"fish)
3	-f i sh	blowfish, Killifish, raffish.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-f-h-i-r-s-y"
	-1 letter: scarify.
	-2 letters: chairs, rachis, sharif.
	-3 letters: chair, chars, chary, chays, chias, crash, fairs, fairy, farci, farcy, fiars, fishy, frays, hafis, hairs, hairy, scarf, scary.
	-4 letters: achy, airs, airy, arch, arcs, arfs, asci, ashy, cars, cash, cays, char, chay, chia, chis, cris, fair, fash, fays, fiar, firs, fisc, fish, fray, hair, hays, ichs, racy, rash.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-f-h-i-r-s-y"
	+2 letters: crayfishes, saccharify.
	+5 letters: saccharifying.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
crayfish	469	crayfish raising	7
crayfish trap	33	claw crayfish red	7
crayfish picture	31	live crayfish	7
blue crayfish	24	crayfish cooking	6
anatomy crayfish	19	crayfish fact	6
crayfish recipe	19	crayfish make trap	6
crayfish farming	16	banquet catering crawfish crayfish ettouffee gumbo seafood shrimp	5
crayfish dissection	15	circulatory crayfish system	5
crayfish pet	15	crayfish cycle life	5
what crayfish eat	14	crayfish trapping	5
care crayfish	14	crayfish habitat	5
crayfish freshwater	12	breeding crayfish	5
crayfish information	10	as crayfish pet	5
caring crayfish	10	crayfish farm	4
catching crayfish	9	crayfish reproduction	4
catch crayfish	9	crayfish growing	4
crayfish rusty	9	crayfish photo	4
aquarium crayfish	9	crayfish species	4
crayfish diagram	9	crayfish feeding	4
crayfish food	8	crayfish digestive system	4
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Crayfish

Definition: Crayfish

Crayfish

Noun

Specialty Definition: Crayfish

Specialty Definition: Crayfish

Synonyms: Crayfish

Crosswords: Crayfish

Commercial Usage: Crayfish

Books

Music

Image Slideshow: Crayfish

Photos:Crayfish

Illustrations:Crayfish

Computer Images:Crayfish

Photo Album: Crayfish

Non-Fiction Usage: Crayfish

Usage Frequency: Crayfish

Expressions: Crayfish

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Crayfish

Modern Translation: Crayfish

Afrikaans

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Catalan

Chinese

Cornish

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Esperanto

Faeroese

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Manx

Maori

Norwegian

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Sranan

Swedish

Turkish

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Ancestral Language Translations: Crayfish

Derivations & Misspellings: Crayfish

Derivations

Misspellings

Rhyming with "Crayfish"

Anagrams: Crayfish

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

INDEX

Photos:
Crayfish

Illustrations:
Crayfish

Computer Images:
Crayfish