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Glite Dictionary
oyster bed

oyster bed

1 3.7
A place in the sea or river where people grow oysters to harvest
  • noun
  • /ˈɔɪstər bɛd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : cama de ostras
  • In the shallow waters, the oyster beds provide an ideal environment for the oysters to thrive.
  • oyster beds in the bay

Examples

  • I hear they're hiring over at the oyster beds.

    The Grey Fox (1982)

  • In Puget Sound, the oyster beds are in relatively small shoreline areas; most of the sound is extremely deep.

    Academic text (1996)

  • For the first time in my life, I was seeing oyster beds.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Some channel dredging in the western end of the bay, however, eliminated good oyster beds.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The oyster beds are in the mouths of the rivers and are well protected from storms.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The change in salinity was enough to wipe out major oyster beds in bays on both sides of the river.

    Blog text (14)

  • As a result, New Jersey's oyster beds did not produce any oysters in 1993 and 1994.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The few remnants of Olympia oyster beds in the US Pacific Northwest are still generally open for harvest.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The dispute in Martin v. Waddell focused on the right to cultivate oyster beds in mudflats.

    Academic text (2001)

  • The company obtains the shells from abandoned oyster beds throughout the Connecticut oystering area, from Norwalk to New Haven, with suction dredges.

    Academic text (1996)

Synonyms

oyster park
vsoyster bed
  • Specialized
5.4

An area where people grow oysters to sell

is often a natural seabed or river area tended for harvesting
oyster bank
vsoyster bed
4.5

A shallow area of water where oysters grow

is mainly on sea or river floors and is artificially bred for harvest

Surface Forms

oyster bed singular
oyster beds plural

Morphology

oyster + bed

The meaning 'an area where oysters are bred and grown' is directly and compositionally derived from 'oyster' (the animal) + 'bed' (a place or layer where something lives or is cultivated). This noun+noun formation (like 'flower bed' or 'river bed') is cross‑linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Oyster bed comes from the picture of a garden bed, but in water: people put groups of oysters on the sea floor or in shallow water like plants in a bed so they can grow. So, oyster bed means the 'area' where oysters are grown and harvested.