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Glite Dictionary
littleneck

littleneck

1 8.3
A small clam with a hard shell that people often eat raw or steamed
  • noun
  • /ˈlɪtəˌnɛk/
  • US
translation icon : almeja littleneck
  • The South Sound and Hood Canal are good options for digging littleneck clams and picking oysters, while razor clam digs on the sandy ocean beaches.
  • littleneck clams
  • dozen littlenecks
  • littlenecks and cherrystones

Examples

  • We enjoyed a refreshing dish of raw littleneck clams with lemon juice and hot sauce.

  • I may have also eaten 6 littlenecks (that's raw clams) and a bunch of oysters.

    Blog text (21)

  • Steamed littleneck clams can be easily gathered and prepared in minutes.

    Blog text (6)

  • Taking these clams, though smaller than littlenecks, was not prohibited by New Jersey statutes.

    Academic text (1990)

  • At one point, as they served the nine dozen littleneck oysters, Saswat leaned over and said quietly in your ear, "Welcome to the club."

    Fiction book (2002)

  • In 5-6 hours on the water, each could gather 6-10 bushels of hard clams, a mixture of littlenecks (small), cherrystones (medium), and chowders (large).

    Academic text (1990)

  • At the seafood market, I bought a dozen littleneck clams to steam for dinner.

  • The chef recommended serving the littleneck clams on a bed of garlic butter and herbs.

Synonyms

quahog
vslittleneck
  • US
1 9.9

A large round clam with a hard shell that people eat on the east coast of North America

is a smaller younger form rather than the mature large type
littleneck clam
vslittleneck
  • US
4.9

A small edible clam often eaten raw or cooked

is the same idea but emphasizes steaming rather than general cooking
Venus mercenaria
vslittleneck
  • Specialized
9.3

A large edible clam with a hard shell that was used as money by some Native American tribes

is the common culinary term used for small young specimens eaten raw or steamed
hard-shell clam
vslittleneck
  • US
6.1

A North American clam with a thick hard shell that is eaten as food

is the smaller young variety mainly served as food not the general species

Compounds

littleneck clam
  • US
4.9

A small edible clam often eaten raw or cooked

How Big

cherrystone
  • US
8.6
littleneck
  • US
1 8.3

Surface Forms

littleneck singular
littlenecks plural

Morphology

littleneck = little + neck (semi-transparent) = little + neck

Formed by compounding 'little' + 'neck'—the components are clear, but the compound is a specialized culinary name for a small hard-shell clam and the link from 'neck' to a clam's feature is not obvious to learners.

Etymology

Littleneck comes from the phrase little neck, where little means 'small' and neck points to the clam's small size, so a littleneck is a small, young hard-shell clam often eaten raw or steamed.