lobster
/ˈlɒbstə
/noun
1A large marine crustacean with a cylindrical body, stalked eyes, and the first of its five pairs of limbs modified as pincers.
- Homarus and other genera, class Malacostraca.
- The body plans of lobsters and humans, flies and fish, barnacles and mice, are initiated using the same families of genes that are conserved across the animal kingdom.
- Both spiney lobsters and hermit crabs have been observed attacking gastropods in this fashion and both produce the distinctive notched gastropod remains.
1.1 [mass noun] The flesh of the lobster as food: she ordered lobster and a glass of white wine [as modifier]: lobster bisque...
- Alistair started off with west coast lobster bisque with white wine, saffron and cognac, while I went for the finnan haddock and lobster risotto with smoked salmon cream and poached egg.
- A special of sherried lobster bisque demands to be ordered; its rich brick color and oceanic, lobster-shell tang give it a gutsy character.
- People may indulge themselves in a huge variety of seafood delights such as lobster, crab, oyster, caviar and more, along with traditional breakfast choices.
1.2Australian /NZ A marine crayfish, especially one whose claws are eaten as food.
1.3 [mass noun] A deep red colour typical of a cooked lobster: [as modifier]: a heavily built man with a lobster nose...
- He pointed to some on the counter top that were looking all… well… lobster coloured you might say.
- There are a lot of you who think Mark ought to get tanning and take a quintessential British lobster colour to the party.
verb [no object]
Catch lobsters: he has been lobstering in Maine for 50 years...
- He said, ‘Just keep lobstering till it runs out, I guess.’
- My brother Cal has been shellfishing (oystering, lobstering, clamming) off the north shore harbors of Long Island, New York since he was sixteen.
- Their only son, Frank, is spending the summer on a boat lobstering before going off to an Ivy League school in the fall.
Origin
Old English lopustre, alteration of Latin locusta 'crustacean, locust'.
Lobsters and locusts (Middle English) are linguistically the same. Latin locusta, from which both derive, had both meanings. A look at close-up pictures of the two clearly shows the similarity. Lobster was used as a contemptuous name for British soldiers from the mid 17th century. Originally applied to a regiment of Roundhead cuirassiers who wore complete suits of armour; later the term was associated with the red military coats once worn by British soldiers. In US slang, lobster was used to describe ‘a slow-witted or gullible person’ from the late 19th century.