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Glite Dictionary
sheepshead

sheepshead

8.3
A large fish found in the western Atlantic that people eat
  • noun
  • /ˈʃiːpˌhɛd/
  • US
translation icon : pez oveja
  • The chef prepared a delicious dish featuring sheepshead fish, garnished with fresh herbs.
  • sheepshead or drum
  • sheepshead and croaker
  • sheepshead and flounder

Examples

  • Eels, flounder, kingfish, scup, shad, sheepshead, spot, weakfish, and an occasional Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar.

    Academic text (1990)

  • During our fishing trip, we caught a sheepshead that weighed over six pounds.

  • So sheepshead are like really like really rough, rough fish.

  • There are our groupers, and moonfish, and sheepshead.

    Dolphin Tale (2011)

  • "Drum, sheepshead, croaker."

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Bonita, sheepshead, mackerel, bass.

    Little Nikita (1988)

  • Upon moving to Wisconsin from the Chicago suburbs as a child, Hribal began studying maps of his township because he was aware that "People knew where the rivers oxbowed or spread out close to the roadway, where fog was likely, what houses had gone up on which hills, who had a place on the river for sheepshead fishing, and who didn't.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Local restaurants offer various recipes that highlight the flavor of sheepshead in seafood dishes.

Synonyms

Archosargus probatocephalus
vssheepshead
  • Specialized
9.9

A large coastal fish from the United States and Mexico that people often eat

is a general label stressing size and coastal range rather than detailed features
Archosargus
vssheepshead
  • Specialized
9.9

A sea fish with black vertical stripes that eats shellfish

is narrower and refers to one common large food fish on the eastern coast

Compounds

sheepshead porgy
  • Specialized
9.0

A tropical sea fish with strong teeth and dark vertical stripes, found from Florida to Brazil

Surface Forms

sheepshead singular
sheepsheads plural

Morphology

sheepshead = sheep + head (opaque) = sheep + head

Although built from 'sheep' + 'head', the lexicalized meaning names a fish and not an actual sheep's head, so learners cannot reliably derive the meaning from the parts.

Etymology

The word sheepshead joins sheep and head because the fish's chunky face and strong front teeth reminded people of a sheep's head. That's why a sheepshead is the name of a large coastal fish often caught for food.