man-eating shark
1
4.9
- noun
- /ˈmænˌiːtɪŋ ʃɑrk/
:
tiburón comehombres
- Fausta Wertz: the dance floor started to open and exposed a vast deep pool filled with man-eating sharks.
Examples
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To make matters worse, the waters around the ship are teeming with man-eating sharks, so swimming to safety is out of the question.
Blog text (12) -
Well it would appear that we have our answer, the very man we were just speaking to is now being brutally attacked by a viscous man-eating shark.
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The documentary showed how man-eating sharks patrol the waters near the beach, posing a threat to swimmers.
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During our trip to the tropical islands, we learned about the dangers of man-eating sharks that have been known to attack surfers.
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The researchers studied the behaviors of man-eating sharks to understand why they sometimes target humans.
Synonyms
12
3.9
A very large powerful shark with sharp teeth that sometimes attacks people
11
2.9
A very large sea fish with a white belly that sometimes attacks people
7
6.7
A large aggressive shark that lives in warm shallow water near coasts and in rivers
5
3.9
A large dangerous shark with dark stripes that lives in warm seas
4
4.5
A slim, fast shark with a blue back and white belly that lives in the open ocean
1
8.2
A large shark with sharp jagged teeth that lives in shallow water near the coast
A large aggressive shark that attacks people
A very large shark called the great white that sometimes attacks people
A large shark with white tips on its fins that lives in warm open oceans and can attack people
A large deep water fish with a white tip on its back fin that can be dangerous to people
A large shark that lives in deep water with a white-tipped top fin and is known to attack people
A large shark with a blue back and white belly that lives in the open sea and can be dangerous
A shark with white tips on its fins that lives in deep warm seas and can be dangerous
A large shark with sharp teeth that lives near Atlantic coasts and sometimes comes near swimmers
A large, aggressive shark called the bull shark that lives in warm shallow water near the coast and in rivers
A large dangerous shark called the tiger shark that lives in warm seas with dark body stripes
Surface Forms
Morphology
man-eating + shark
The phrase is compositionally built: 'man-eating' (man + eating) describes an entity that eats people, so 'man-eating shark' straightforwardly means a shark that eats humans. This regular compound/adjective+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English morphology, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Man-eating shark comes from a simple, scary picture: a man-eating shark is a shark that eats a person. Sailors and old newspapers used the words for sharks that attacked people, so today the term means a shark 'attacking humans' or 'dangerous' to people.