Word.ws English Dictionary

sharkish

US/ˈʃɑɹkɪʃ/

sharkish adjective: having shark-like characteristics, such as fierceness or agility.

Adjective

sharkish (comparative more sharkish, superlative most sharkish)

  1. Having shark-like characteristics, such as fierceness or agility.
    • Pious harpooneers never make good voyagers—it takes the shark out of 'em; no harpooneer is worth a straw who aint pretty sharkish.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “His Mark”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 101

Forms of sharkish

comparativemore sharkish
superlativemost sharkish

Origin of sharkish

From shark + -ish.

Words formed from sharkish

Questions about sharkish

What does sharkish mean?
Sharkish means having shark-like characteristics, such as fierceness or agility.
What part of speech is sharkish?
Sharkish is an adjective.
How do you pronounce sharkish?
Sharkish is pronounced /ˈʃɑɹkɪʃ/ (US).

Words near sharkish in the dictionary

  1. sharki
  2. sharkie
  3. sharkies
  4. sharking
  5. sharking up
  6. sharkish
  7. sharkishly
  8. sharkless
  9. sharklet
  10. sharklets
  11. sharklike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sharkish (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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