king crab
1
2.8
- noun
- /kɪŋ kræb/
- US
:
carne de cangrejo real
- The restaurant is famous for its delicious king crab served with lemon.
- king crab legs
Examples
-
So we're in for a king crab lunch after a hike.
-
We are here, Alaska king legs, king crab legs, and fresh halibuts, fish and chips.
-
For dinner, we are having king crab legs with garlic butter.
-
I was delighted to taste the king crab which was caught fresh that morning.
Synonyms
80
1.0
The meat from a sea animal that people eat
5
1.4
Legs of a crab often served as food, like king or snow crabs
5
1.0
Parts of a crab that people eat
2
3.4
A bluish crab that lives on North America's Atlantic and Gulf coasts and is eaten for its sweet meat
1
4.1
A large edible crab with a hard shell found in Florida and southern US waters, often eaten for its meat
1
5.1
A large edible crab that lives along the Pacific coast of North America
1
4.5
A small sea animal with a hard shell that lives on rocky shores
The sweet meat from the legs of a very large crab that lives in cold northern seas near Alaska
Meat from the legs of a large crab that lives in cold northern waters, usually sweet and tender
The meat from the legs of large cold water crabs that people eat
Meat from crabs caught in Japan that is often sold in cans for food
A very large sea crab from Japan that lives in deep water with very long legs
A sea crab with very long legs and a small triangular body
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward compound where 'king' functions as an attributive marker meaning large/superior and 'crab' names the animal/seafood, so the combined sense (a large or high-quality type of crab used for meat) is directly derivable from the parts. The pattern (using 'king' or similar honorifics to signal size or prominence) is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will very likely infer the correct meaning.
Etymology
King crab as a food gets its name from the large animal. Cooks take the sweet meat from the long legs of the big crab, and because this crab was seen like a king for its size and taste, its meat became a 'delicacy', so king crab can mean the crab meat served as a special food.