sea squab

noun

: puffer fish

also : the backbone and surrounding flesh of a puffer fish when served as food

The mild-flavored, meaty back portion was marketed euphemistically as "sea squab," and is still sometimes sold under that name today. In recent years the puffers, once abundant in Chesapeake Bay, have declined in number …

—National Geographic, August 1984

Word History

First Known Use

1945, in the meaning defined above

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