shrimp
/ʃɹɪmp/
shrimp noun: any of many swimming, often edible, crustaceans, chiefly of the infraorder Caridea or the suborder Dendrobranchiata, with slender legs, long whiskers and a long abdomen.
Noun (1)
shrimp (countable and uncountable, plural (UK) shrimp or (US) shrimps)
- Any of many swimming, often edible, crustaceans, chiefly of the infraorder Caridea or the suborder Dendrobranchiata, with slender legs, long whiskers and a long abdomen.
- Butter well a deep dish, upon which place a thick layer of pounded biscuit; having picked and boiled your shrimps, put them upon the biscuit; a layer of shrimps, with small pieces of butter, a little pepper, mace or nutmeg.1851, Sarah Rutledge, “A Lady of Charleston”, in The Carolina Housewife, published 2013, unnumbered page
- Shrimp farming is in its infancy in Africa. but Asia has most of the world's shrimp farms.1998, Claude E. Boyd, Pond Aquaculture Water Quality Management, page 605
- Synonyms:
- prawn
- The flesh of such crustaceans.
- Synonyms:
- prawn
- A small, puny or unimportant person.
- Synonym of butterface
- Synonyms:
- prawn, biffer, boner-shrinker, bonerkiller, buttface, choad, frump, minger, monkey, monkeyface
- A small penis.
- shrimp dick
- Synonyms:
- baby carrot, baby cock, baby dick, dicklet, dickling, dicklit, clit, clitty, microdick, micropenis
- Antonyms:
- cunt buster, donkey cock, donkey dick, horse cock, horse dick, monster cock, monsterdick, supercock, superdick, superpenis
Verb
shrimp (third-person singular simple present shrimps, present participle shrimping, simple past and past participle shrimped)
- To fish for shrimp.
- Fishing, shrimping and crabbing are permitted on designated areas of the refuge subject to the following conditions:[…]1986, The Code of Federal Regulations of the United States of America, page 454
- Although the line is not always sharply drawn, offshore shrimping and inshore shrimping require different strategies.1996, Anthony V. Margavio, Caught in the Net: The Conflict Between Shrimpers and Conservationists, page 24
- To contract; to shrink.
Noun (2) capitalized: SHRIMP
SHRIMP
- Acronym of sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe.
Noun (3) capitalized: Shrimp
Shrimp (plural Shrimps)
- A player, supporter or other person connected with Morecambe Football Club.
shrimp meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
shrimp in Hindi
- decapod crustacean
- झींगा jhīṅgā
shrimp in Bengali
- decapod crustacean
- ইঁচা ĩca, চিংড়ি ciṅṛi, ইচলা icola, ইচলি icoli
shrimp in Malayalam
- decapod crustacean
- ചെമ്മീൻ cemmīṉ
shrimp in Kannada
- decapod crustacean
- ಸೀಗಡಿ sīgaḍi
More languagesFewer languages
- shrimp in Sanskrit
- चिङ्गटि ciṅgaṭi, चिङ्गट ciṅgaṭa, इञ्चाक iñcāka
- shrimp in Assamese
- মিছা মাছ misa mas, নিচলা মাছ nisola mas
- shrimp in Tagalog
- hipon
- shrimp in Arabic
- رُوبِيَان rūbiyān, جَمْبَرِيّ jambariyy, إِرْبِيَان ʔirbiyān, قُرَيْدِس quraydis
- shrimp in Malay
- udang
- shrimp in Indonesian
- udang
- shrimp in Persian
- میگو meygu
- shrimp in Thai
- กุ้ง gûng
- shrimp in Vietnamese
- tôm
- shrimp in Myanmar
- မျှင် hmyang, ပုစွန် pu.cwan
Examples of shrimp in a sentence
- Most shrimps belong to one of several families of the Infraorder Caridea (Chapter 4).2004, Gary C. B. Poore, Shane T. Ahyong, Marine Decapod Crustacea of Southern Australia: A Guide to Identification, page 145:
- America's favorite seafood, shrimp has always been a big seller at the Home Port.2011, Will Holtham, Home Port Cookbook: Beloved Recipes from Martha's Vineyard, page 142:
- How many shrimps do you have to eat / Before you make your skin turn pink? / Eat too much and you'll get sick / Shrimps are pretty rich2014, Kero Kero Bonito, “Flamingo” (overall work in English and Japanese):
- There were times we shrimped in the same boat due to breakdowns and such, but for the most part we each had our own separate boat.2007, Jerry Wayne Caines, A Caines Family Tradition: A Native Son's Story of Fishing, Hunting and Duck Decoys in the Lowcountry, page 86:
Synonyms of shrimp
- prawn
- biffer
- boner-shrinker
- bonerkiller
- buttface
- choad
- frump
- minger
- monkey
- monkeyface
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
- cunt buster
- donkey cock
- donkey dick
- horse cock
- horse dick
- monster cock
- monsterdick
- supercock
- superdick
- superpenis
1 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of shrimp
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural UK | shrimp |
| plural US | shrimps |
| plural | Shrimps |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | shrimps |
| present participle | shrimping |
| past participle | shrimped |
| past | shrimped |
Origin of shrimp
From Middle English schrimpe (“shrimp, puny person”), possibly from or related to Middle Low German schrempen (“to wrinkle”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaz (“shrivelled”), from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną (“to shrivel”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerbʰ-. See also Middle High German schrimpf (“a scratch, minor wound”), Norwegian skramp (“thin horse, thin man”); also Old English sċrimman (“to shrink”) and scrimp, Middle High German schrimpfen (“to shrink, dry up”), Swedish skrympa (“to shrink”); also Lithuanian skrembti (“to crust over, stiffen”), and possibly Albanian shkrumb (“embers, ashes; crumble”).
Words formed from shrimp
- Aesop shrimp
- akiami paste shrimp
- alpheid shrimp
- blue shrimp
- brine shrimp
- brown shrimp
- clam shrimp
- cleaner shrimp
- clown mantis shrimp
- coonstripe shrimp
- daggerblade grass shrimp
- drunken shrimp
- emperor shrimp
- fairy shrimp
- ghost shrimp
- glass shrimp
- grass shrimp
- grooved shrimp
- harlequin mantis shrimp
- jumbo shrimp
- land shrimp
- lawn shrimp
- mantis shrimp
- mussel shrimp
- northern shrimp
- opossum shrimp
- painted mantis shrimp
- peacock mantis shrimp
- peppermint shrimp
- peregrine shrimp
- pink shrimp
- pistol shrimp
- popcorn shrimp
- potted shrimp
- rainbow mantis shrimp
- sand shrimp
- seed shrimp
- sexy shrimp
- shield shrimp
- shrimpball
- shrimp boat
- shrimpburger
- shrimp chip
- shrimp cracker
- shrimp DeJonghe
- shrimpery
- shrimpfish
- shrimp fork
- shrimpfurter
- shrimpish
- shrimp jammer
- shrimple
- shrimpless
- shrimplet
- shrimplike
- shrimpling
- shrimp net
- shrimpoluminescence
- shrimp paste
- shrimp plant
Phrases with shrimp
Words that rhyme with shrimp
Questions about shrimp
- What does shrimp mean?
- Shrimp means any of many swimming, often edible, crustaceans, chiefly of the infraorder Caridea or the suborder Dendrobranchiata, with slender legs, long whiskers and a long abdomen.
- What is shrimp in Hindi?
- Shrimp in Hindi is झींगा (jhīṅgā). See Shrimp meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use shrimp in a sentence?
- Most shrimps belong to one of several families of the Infraorder Caridea (Chapter 4).
- What part of speech is shrimp?
- Shrimp can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce shrimp?
- Shrimp is pronounced /ʃɹɪmp/.
- What is the plural of shrimp?
- The plural of shrimp is Shrimps.
Words near shrimp in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shrimp (page history and authors); SHRIMP (page history and authors); Shrimp (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shrimp.ogg.
Cite this entry: “shrimp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shrimp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.