minnow

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min·now

(mĭn′ō)

n. pl. minnow or min·nows

1. Any of a large group of small freshwater fishes of the family Cyprinidae, widely used as live bait.

2. Any of various other small, often silver-colored fishes.

[Middle English meneu; see men- in Indo-European roots.]

minnow

(ˈmɪnəʊ)

n, pl -nows or -now

1. (Animals) a small slender European freshwater cyprinid fish, Phoxinus phoxinus

2. (Animals) any other small cyprinid

3. (Angling) angling a spinning lure imitating a minnow

4. a small or insignificant person

[C15: related to Old English myne minnow; compare Old High German muniwa fish]

min•now

(ˈmɪn oʊ)

n., pl. (esp. for kinds or species) -nows, (esp. collectively, Rare) -now.

1. a small, European cyprinoid fish, Phoxinus phoxinus.

2. any fish of the family Cyprinidae, characterized by jaws without teeth and smooth overlapping scales and including the carps, goldfishes, and daces.

[1325–75; Middle English minwe, Old English *mynwe (feminine) for myne (masculine); c. Old High German munewa kind of fish]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

minnow - very small European freshwater fish common in gravelly streams

Phoxinus phoxinus

cyprinid, cyprinid fish - soft-finned mainly freshwater fishes typically having toothless jaws and cycloid scales

genus Phoxinus, Phoxinus - minnows

Translations

střevle

mutusintti

bambin

pesciolino

płotka

гольян

minnow

[ˈmɪnəʊ] N (minnow or minnows (pl)) → pececillo m (de agua dulce)

minnow

[ˈmɪnəʊ] n (= small fish) → vairon m

minnow

n → Elritze f

References in classic literature ?

He looked into every pool of water vainly, until, as the long twilight came on, he discovered a solitary fish, the size of a minnow, in such a pool.

In the middle of the day he found two minnows in a large pool.

In the evening he caught three more minnows, eating two and saving the third for breakfast.

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I caught him just below the bridge with a minnow. They told me he wur in the river, and I said I'd have him, and so I did.

I never knew anybody catch anything, up the Thames, except minnows and dead cats, but that has nothing to do, of course, with fishing!

View in context

It was indeed a changeful brook; here it would make a pool, dark and brooding and still, where we bent to look at our mirrored faces; then it grew communicative and gossiped shallowly over a broken pebble bed where there was a diamond dance of sunbeams and no troutling or minnow could glide through without being seen.

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"I WILL get some worms and go fishing and catch a dish of minnows for my dinner," said Mr.

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Here and there between the trunks were water-cracks, and through them we could see schools of small fish, like minnows, darting back and forth.

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When he was tired he lay face-downward on the grass and watched the eager scurrying of minnows and of tadpoles.

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Coming slowly on through the forests of masts was a great steamship, beating the water in short impatient strokes with her heavy paddles as though she wanted room to breathe, and advancing in her huge bulk like a sea monster among the minnows of the Thames.

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He often would Hurly-burly Get up early And go By hook or crook To the brook, And bring home Miller's Thumb, Tittlebat Not over fat, Minnows small As the stall Of a glove, Not above The size Of a nice Little baby's Little fingers."

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He got out the fish lines and showed Saxon how to bait her hooks with salted minnows. Then they dropped the lines to bottom, where they vibrated in the swift tide, and waited for bites.