American plaice

noun

: a small, brownish flounder (Hippoglossoides platessoides) found on both coasts of the north Atlantic that has a large mouth and both eyes on the right side

While bowheads are doing better because commercial hunting has ended, the situation is dire for the American plaice, a flatfish that experts fear is in the midst of a cod-like collapse due to massive overharvesting in Canadian waters.

—Martin Mittelstaedt, Globe and Mail (Canada), 5 May 2009

Word History

First Known Use

1884, in the meaning defined above

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