nurse shark

nurse shark

n. Any of various bottom-feeding sharks of the family Ginglymostomatidae, having long barbels near the mouth and feeding chiefly at night, especially Ginglymostoma cirratum of tropical and subtropical waters.

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[From nurse, any of various kinds of dogfishes or sharks, alteration of earlier nusse, perhaps from earlier and dialectal huss, dogfish (by reanalysis of an huss, a dogfish as a nusse), from Middle English husk, of unknown origin.]

nurse shark

n (Animals) any of various sharks of the family Orectolobidae, such as Ginglymostoma cirratum of the Atlantic Ocean, having an external groove on each side of the head between the mouth and nostril [C15: nusse fisshe (later influenced in spelling by nurse), perhaps from division of obsolete an huss shark, dogfish (of uncertain origin) as a nuss]

nurse′ shark`

n. any scavenging shark of the family Orectolobidae, having a barbel and deep groove at either side of the mouth, esp. Ginglymostoma cirratum. [1850–55]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

nurse shark - small bottom-dwelling shark of warm shallow waters on both coasts of North America and South America and from southeast Asia to AustraliaGinglymostoma cirratumshark - any of numerous elongate mostly marine carnivorous fishes with heterocercal caudal fins and tough skin covered with small toothlike scalesgenus Ginglymostoma, Ginglymostoma - nurse sharks