mer·maid's purse

(mûr′mādz′)

The rectangular leathery egg case of certain elasmobranch fishes, especially the skates, often found washed up on beaches. Also called sea purse.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mermaid's purse

(Zoology) another name for sea purse

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Mentioned in

sea purse

References in periodicals archive

Her story The Mermaid's Purse was partly inspired by her own childhood memories and love of the beach, and has a deliberately shocking ending to contrast with the rest of her story.

University of Chester youth fiction competition winners revealed; The contest is organised by the university's Department of English

Look among the seaweed for the "mermaid's purse" which is actually the empty egg case of a ray or dog fish.

Beach-combing shore is good fun

A MERMAID'S PURSE REGULAR readers will know that I am a great fan of bringing the outside inside.

Celebrating a seaside treasure

It is half encased in a pod, rather like a mermaid's purse, yet I am also aware that I have given birth to it.

Cooking For My Boyfriend Jesus

Most recent are "Drawing of a Swan Before Memory" (2005, University of Georgia Press) and "Mermaid's Purse" (Spuytenduyvil, 2005).

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