hagfish

hag·fish  (hgfsh)

n. pl. hagfish or hag·fish·es

Any of various primitive, eel-shaped marine fishes of the family Myxinidae, having a jawless sucking mouth equipped with rasping teeth with which they bore into and feed on other fishes.

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[hag + fish.]

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hagfish [ˈhægˌfɪʃ]

n pl -fish, -fishes

(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Animals) any eel-like marine cyclostome vertebrate of the family Myxinidae, having a round sucking mouth and feeding on the tissues of other animals and on dead organic material Often shortened to hag

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

hagfish - eellike cyclostome having a tongue with horny teeth in a round mouth surrounded by eight tentacles; feeds on dead or trapped fishes by boring into their bodies slime eels, hag agnathan, jawless fish, jawless vertebrate - eel-shaped vertebrate without jaws or paired appendages including the cyclostomes and some extinct forms family Myxinidae, Myxinidae - slime-producing marine animals: hagfishes Myxine glutinosa - typical hagfish eptatretus - a fossil hagfish of the genus Eptatretus Myxinikela siroka - fossil hagfish of the Pennsylvanian period (c. 300 million years ago) that resembled modern hagfishes