oysters

Noun

oyster (plural oysters)

1. Any of certain marine bivalve mollusks, especially those of the family Ostreidae (the true oysters), usually found adhering to rocks or other fixed objects in shallow water along the seacoasts, or in brackish water in the mouth of rivers.
   • Piſt. Why then the world's mine Oyſter, which I, with ſword will open.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
2. The delicate oyster-shaped morsel of dark meat contained in a small cavity of the bone on each side of the lower part of the back of a fowl.
   • Cut remaining skin on back. Remove the oyster (choice dark meat in spoon-shaped bone on back) with the leg.1971, United States Bureau of Naval Personnel, “Food preparation”, in Steward 3 & 2, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 148
3. Any of the fungi in the genera Pleurotus, Hohenbuehelia, or other related genera.
4. A pale beige color tinted with grey or pink, like that of an oyster.
5. (colloquial, by analogy) A person who keeps secrets.
   • Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 3
6. (figuratively) Something at one's disposal.
   • He asked a major Chicago retailer with a large store in the heart of the city about the socioeconomic character of his customers. The man replied proudly that the entire range of economic classes was his oyster.1959, Vance Packard, The Status Seekers, Pocket Books, published 1971, →ISBN, page 116

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