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Glite Dictionary
bay scallop

bay scallop

1 3.7
A small edible shellfish with sweet, tender meat from shallow coastal waters
  • noun
  • /beɪ ˈskæl.əp/
  • US
translation icon : scallop de bahía
  • A similar or identical organism had been seen much earlier in bay scallops from U.S. waters (Ray and Chandler, 1955), and more recently by Karisson (1990).
  • ounces of bay scallops

Examples

  • The light salt taste turned the bay scallop into a wonderful delicacy.

  • The bay scallop fishery, in particular, is heavily damaged by severe brown tides (Figure 3), with fishery yields reduced for years (Bricelj and Lonsdale 1997).

    Academic text (2000)

  • A bay scallop, I would say, actually.

    Local Hero (1983)

  • Gimme, uh, gimme the bay scallops with Mercury poisoning.

    Game 6 (2006)

  • Between 1983 and 1989, bay scallop landings fell by 88 percent.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Once the rays' abundance significantly increased, after about 1980, the abundance of one of their major food sources, the bay scallop, plummeted.

    Academic text (2008)

  • We've got bay scallops.

    Random Hearts (1999)

  • Ingersoll stated that fishermen gathered bay scallops by towing small, triangular dredges from rowboats or sailboats.

    Academic text (1991)

  • We had bay scallops and lump crabmeat a la Chesapeake as our main dish.

  • More petite bay scallops are prized for their sweet, delicate flesh and are noticeably pricier.

Synonyms

sea scallop
vsbay scallop
  • US
2 3.4

A large sea animal with a shell that people eat for its tender meat

is smaller and lives in shallow coastal water with sweeter meat
Pecten irradians
vsbay scallop
  • Specialized
9.9

A small scallop that lives in shallow waters and mud flats on the east coast of North America

is the common small edible variety prized for sweet tender meat
scollop
vsbay scallop
  • UK
8.1

A sea animal with a fan-shaped shell eaten as food

is the specific small shallow-water edible type with tender meat
Pecten magellanicus
vsbay scallop
  • Specialized
9.9

A large scallop from the deep, cold Atlantic waters of North America valued for its meat

is a much smaller shallow-water edible variety with sweeter tender flesh
giant scallop
vsbay scallop
  • US
4.9

A large edible sea clam that lives in cold Atlantic waters

is a smaller shallow-water edible variety with tender sweet meat

How Big

giant scallop
  • US
4.9
sea scallop
  • US
2 3.4
scallop
40 3.7
bay scallop
  • US
1 3.7

Surface Forms

bay scallop singular
bay scallops plural

Morphology

bay + scallop

The meaning is directly compositional: 'bay' specifies the habitat/location and 'scallop' names the marine bivalve, so a learner who knows both words can infer it is a type of scallop from a bay. This location+noun compound is a common, cross-linguistic naming pattern for species and foods, making the phrase predictable to B1 learners.

Etymology

Bay scallop comes from where the animal lives and what it is: a small scallop found in shallow bay waters. Because these scallops live in warm, protected bays they have sweet, tender meat, so the name points to this particular 'small, edible shellfish' found along the Atlantic coast.