crawfish

1 of 2

noun

craw·​fish ˈkrȯ-ˌfish 

1

: crayfish sense 1

2

: spiny lobster

crawfish

2 of 2

verb

crawfished; crawfishing; crawfishes

intransitive verb

: to retreat from a position : back out

I crawfished as fast as I could

—Mark Twain

Examples of crawfish in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Miles of strip malls offer thrilling meals from all over the world: taco shops; dim-sum palaces; Indian and Pakistani banquet halls; Vietnamese restaurants that specialize in banh mi, or pho, or borrow Cajun traditions like crawfish boils. —Hannah Goldfield, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2024

He was issued a civil citation for shoplifting on April 29, 2014, after allegedly walking out of a Tallahassee, Florida, supermarket without paying for $32 worth of crab legs and crawfish. —Jackson Thompson, Fox News, 27 Nov. 2024

The crawfish kept us floating, kept the cash flow going. —Marley Malenfant, Austin American-Statesman, 8 Feb. 2024

Fancy Dance takes place over a couple of weeks in the summer, when river crawfish are plentiful enough for Roki to catch under Jax’s supervising eye. —Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 2 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

by folk etymology from Middle English crevis, kraveys

First Known Use

Noun

1624, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1842, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

crawfish

noun

craw·​fish

ˈkrȯ-ˌfish

1

: crayfish sense 1

2

: spiny lobster