Mackerel

Pronunciation

From Old French maquerel, from a source.

Full definition of mackerel

Noun

1. An edible fish of the family Scombridae, often speckled.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, Philander went into the next room...and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.

Derived terms

• Atlantic mackerel
• cero mackerel
• chub mackerel
• double-lined mackerel
• holy mackerel
• horse mackerel
• a sprat to catch a mackerel
• mackerel scad
• mackerel shark
• mackerel sky
• mackerel snapper
• Spanish mackerel

Related terms

• scombral

Old French maquerel, French maquereau, from Dutch makelaar ("mediator, agent").

Noun

1. (obsolete) A pimp; also, a bawd.