sprat

1 7.8

A small oily fish often eaten smoked or canned

noun
/spræt/

: esprat

In the market, I found a tin of sprats packed in olive oil.
little sprats

They're like these species of sardine and sprat and and like gill fish and lung fish, but it's like nobody, nobody raises money for them, right?

Examples

We are enjoying canned sprats on toast for lunch.
We're going to open some mail and get a Russian meal, including sampling big sprats in oil.
The fisherman brought home buckets full of sprats after a successful catch.

Synonyms

sardine

vssprat

60 1.3

A small oily fish often sold in cans and eaten

is used especially in Europe rather than as a general term

alec

vssprat

Archaic

1 9.4

A small fish often eaten in Europe

is the specific species rather than a general small fish term

Clupea sprattus

vssprat

Specialized

9.9

A small silvery fish like a herring that people often eat from a can

is the common name used instead of the scientific label

pilchard

vssprat

5.5

A small oily fish often canned and eaten

is more tied to European smoked or canned culinary use

brisling

vssprat

8.4

A small fatty fish like a sardine often smoked or canned

is defined as a member of the herring family rather than merely similar to one

Idioms

to throw a sprat to catch a mackerel

Archaic

9.9

Give something small to get something much bigger later

Surface Forms

sprat singular

sprats plural

Etymology

The word sprat comes from old North European words like sprot and German Sprotte, which meant 'small fish'. So a sprat today is a tiny, oily fish often eaten smoked or canned.