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Glite Dictionary
🦀 A large crab 🍽️ Edible crab meat
Dungeness crab

Dungeness crab

5.4
The meat from a large Pacific crab, often sweet and tender
  • noun
  • /ˈdʌndʒənɛs kræb/
  • US
translation icon : carne de cangrejo Dungeness
  • Harvesting Dungeness crab is an important part of the fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest.

Examples

  • I love to eat Dungeness crab during the summer.

  • We ordered steamed Dungeness crab at the coastal restaurant for dinner.

  • The chef prepared a fresh salad with tender pieces of Dungeness crab.

  • Have you ever tried Dungeness crabs?

  • The Dungeness crab is highly sought after for its sweet and tender meat.

  • We enjoyed a delicious meal of Dungeness crab with garlic butter at the seaside restaurant.

  • At the seafood market, they had fresh Dungeness crab ready for cooking.

Synonyms

crab
vsDungeness crab
80 1.0

The meat from a sea animal that people eat

comes from one specific Pacific species and is prized in seafood markets
crabmeat
vsDungeness crab
5 1.0

Parts of a crab that people eat

comes from one large Pacific species and is especially valued as seafood
Cancer magister
vsDungeness crab
  • Specialized
8.4

A large crab from the Pacific coast of North America that people eat

refers to the prepared edible flesh used as food rather than the living creature

Surface Forms

Dungeness crab singular
Dungeness crabs plural

Morphology

Dungeness + crab

This is a compositional noun-noun combination: 'Dungeness' (a place-name) + 'crab' (a marine crustacean), so a learner who knows both constituents will infer it denotes a type of crab or a crab from the Dungeness area. The phrase is not idiomatic or metaphorical and follows a common cross-linguistic pattern of place-name + animal, so its meaning is immediately derivable from its parts.

Etymology

Dungeness crab takes its name from the place Dungeness where fishermen first caught lots of these crabs, and so the word also came to mean the crab's tasty 'meat'.