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Glite Dictionary
🔭 A star watcher 🐟 A sea fish
stargazer

stargazer

1 9.4
A heavy fish with eyes on the top of its head that lives on the sea bottom
  • noun
  • /ˈstɑrˌɡeɪzər/
translation icon : pescado estrella
  • Fishermen occasionally catch a stargazer among their usual haul of flatfish.
  • stargazer lily

Examples

  • Scientists studied the unique eyes of the stargazer to understand its adaptation to the ocean floor.

  • The stargazer hides itself in the sand, waiting for unsuspecting prey to swim by.

  • The stargazer swam gracefully along the ocean floor.

  • Have you ever seen a stargazer in the wild?

  • The eyes sit on top of the stargazer's head, and behind each one is a small electric organ.

  • Skates and electric stargazers are the only other saltwater fish known to have electricity-generating organs.

  • Unlike skates and electric rays, which have cartilaginous skeletons, the stargazers are true fish, with bony skeletons.

Compounds

sand stargazer
  • US
9.9

A small pale fish with eyes on stalks that buries itself in sand to ambush prey

Surface Forms

stargazer singular
stargazers plural

Morphology

stargazer = star + gazer (semi-transparent) = star + gaze + er

The parts 'star' + 'gazer' are semantically clear, but the specific application to a species of fish is a specialized/metaphorical extension that learners may not infer.

Etymology

Stargazer for the fish comes from star ('a light in the sky') and gaze ('to look'), because the fish's eyes sit on top of its head and seem to look up like someone watching the stars, which explains its name.