"crawfish" meaning in English

See crawfish in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈkɹɔˌfɪʃ/ Audio: En-au-crawfish.ogg Forms: crawfishes [plural], crawfish [plural]
Etymology: 1620s, folk etymology from Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice (French écrevisse), influenced by fish. Compare crayfish. Etymology templates: {{glossary|folk etymology}} folk etymology, {{inh|en|enm|crevis}} Middle English crevis, {{cog|fro|crevice}} Old French crevice, {{cog|fr|écrevisse}} French écrevisse Head templates: {{en-noun|~|+|*}} crawfish (countable and uncountable, plural crawfishes or crawfish)
  1. (Southern US, especially Louisiana and Texas, Midwest, Western US) Any of various freshwater crustaceans: crayfish. Tags: Louisiana, Southern-US, Texas, US, Western, countable, especially, uncountable Synonyms: crawdad, crawldad, crawlfish, crayfish, mudbug, yabby
    Sense id: en-crawfish-en-noun-EuSWJO3C Categories (other): Louisiana English, Southern US English, Texas English, Western US English, English entries with incorrect language header, Astacideans Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 14 38 44 2 3 Disambiguation of Astacideans: 100 0 0 0 0
  2. (South Africa) Any of various marine crustaceans, rock lobster; especially Jasus lalandii, the Cape crawfish. Tags: South-Africa, countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-crawfish-en-noun-HN6kPx10 Categories (other): South African English, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 14 38 44 2 3 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 15 46 27 5 6 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 19 53 21 3 4 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 17 45 33 2 3 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 18 39 31 6 6
  3. (Quebec, Canada, slang, derogatory) An English-Canadian. Used in some corners of Quebec (including the Gaspé). Tags: Canada, Quebec, countable, derogatory, slang, uncountable
    Sense id: en-crawfish-en-noun-WZ2JahJX Categories (other): Canadian English, Quebec English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 14 38 44 2 3
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: crawchie, crawfishy

Verb

IPA: /ˈkɹɔˌfɪʃ/ Audio: En-au-crawfish.ogg Forms: crawfishes [present, singular, third-person], crawfishing [participle, present], crawfished [participle, past], crawfished [past]
Etymology: 1620s, folk etymology from Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice (French écrevisse), influenced by fish. Compare crayfish. Etymology templates: {{glossary|folk etymology}} folk etymology, {{inh|en|enm|crevis}} Middle English crevis, {{cog|fro|crevice}} Old French crevice, {{cog|fr|écrevisse}} French écrevisse Head templates: {{en-verb}} crawfish (third-person singular simple present crawfishes, present participle crawfishing, simple past and past participle crawfished)
  1. (intransitive) To fish for crawfish. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-crawfish-en-verb-Z0lsKKYf
  2. (intransitive, colloquial, Southern US) To backpedal, desert or withdraw (also used with out). Tags: Southern-US, colloquial, intransitive Translations (to backpedal): recular (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-crawfish-en-verb-3pL3i3tU Categories (other): Southern US English Disambiguation of 'to backpedal': 0 100

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "derived": [
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      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
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      "id": "en-crawfish-en-noun-HN6kPx10",
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        "To fish for crawfish."
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        "(intransitive) To fish for crawfish."
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          "_dis1": "0 100",
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    {
      "audio": "En-au-crawfish.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9d/En-au-crawfish.ogg/En-au-crawfish.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/En-au-crawfish.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "to backpedal",
      "word": "recular"
    }
  ],
  "word": "crawfish"
}

Download raw JSONL data for crawfish meaning in English (6.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-20 using wiktextract (cdfa371 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.