fish knife
1
4.5
- noun
:
cuchillo de pescado
- Dave looks at it all, baffled for a moment, while Reed guides his hand toward the fish knife.
Examples
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If there's no fish knife and fork, use the smaller knife and fork for the fish.
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Cake knives, fish knives, knives for salad, knives for meat, and knives for fruit.
Fiction book (2000) -
This is a fish knife.
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and the fish knife on the outside
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and the soup spoon to the left of the fish knife,
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So you have to learn to tell a fish knife from a meat knife, and a fish fork from a meat fork.
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For someone who owned eight pairs of white gloves and a set of pearl-handled fish knives, the woman could be ruthless.
Fiction book (2000) -
Besides the multiple forks, there will be an armory of knives: salad knife, fish knife, bread knife, dessert knife.
Academic text (2004) -
When serving the salmon, make sure to use a fish knife to prepare it properly.
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At the formal dinner, each guest received a fish knife next to their place setting for the seafood course.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A tool with a sharp blade and handle used for cutting or as a weapon
1
1.0
A blunt tool used to cut and spread food at the table
How Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a knife for eating or serving fish' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'fish' (the food) and 'knife' (a cutting utensil); a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer it denotes a type of knife used with fish. This noun–noun compound follows common cross-linguistic patterns for naming utensils and has no idiomatic or metaphorical shift, so it is clearly compositional.
Etymology
The name fish knife comes from old formal dinners where people used a special tool just for fish. Its wide, flat blade lets you lift soft fish flesh away from the bones with a small table knife, so fish knife means 'a small, broad table knife for eating fish'.