Word.ws English Dictionary

mermaid's purses

mermaid's purses is the plural of mermaid's purse.

Meaning of mermaid's purse

Noun

mermaid's purse (plural mermaid's purses)

  1. The egg case of a skate, shark or ratfish.
    • He reflected that it had probably come in over the outer reef to lay its eggs, or 'Mermaids' Purses' as the fishermen call them, because they are shaped like a pillow with a stiff black string at each corner, on the sheltered sandy bottom.1954, Ian Fleming, “Beau Desert”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 206
    Synonyms:
    devil's purse, sailor's purse, sea-purse, sea-pincushion

Questions about mermaid's purses

What is mermaid's purses the plural of?
Mermaid's purses is the plural of mermaid's purse.

Words near mermaid's purses in the dictionary

  1. mermaid tresses
  2. mermaid's fishing line
  3. mermaid's glove
  4. mermaid's hair
  5. mermaid's purse
  6. mermaid's purses
  7. mermaid's toenail
  8. mermaid's toenails
  9. mermaid's tresses
  10. mermaidcore
  11. mermaiden

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mermaid's purses (page history and authors); mermaid's purse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “mermaid's purses.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mermaid%27s_purses. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.