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Glite Dictionary
fishbone

fishbone

1 1.5
A small thin hard piece inside a fish that can hurt your throat if swallowed
  • noun
  • /ˈfɪʃˌboʊn/
: espina de pescado
  • After filleting the fish, there were several fishbones left on the plate.

Examples

  • The child found a fishbone stuck in her throat while eating dinner.

  • It is important to remove all fishbones from the meal to avoid choking hazards.

  • She slid back to the crown of rock without realizing she had moved, the bark with its fishbones forgotten in her hand, her eyes fixed on the spot.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • I rocked her in the steamy bathroom, her pale skin stretched like an eggshell over her slight body, her ribs delicate as fishbones underneath.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • It was a fishbone of resentment lodged deep in his throat, proof against all psychological Heimlich maneuvers, that the Bobcats were the losingest team in the history of Little League, baseball, and American sport.

    Fiction book (1994)

Surface Forms

fishbone singular
fishbones plural

Morphology

fishbone = fish + bone (transparent) = fish + bone

Direct compound of 'fish' + 'bone' whose meaning is literally 'a bone from a fish', easily derivable by learners.

Etymology

Fishbone is made from fish and bone, which mean 'fish' and 'bone'. It names the small, thin bone you find in a fish, so you can remember it as the tiny bone that can be sharp and get stuck when you eat fish.