Oyster

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈɔɪ.stÉ™(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɔɪstÉ™(ɹ)

Alternative forms

• oystre obsolete
• erster New York City and New Orleans

Origin

From Old English ostre, reinforced or superseded in Middle English by Anglo-Norman oistre, which from Old French oistre, uistre (compare modern French huître); both lines (Old English and Old French) from Latin ostrea, from Ancient Greek ὄστρεον.

Full definition of oyster

Noun

1. Any of certain marine bivalve mollusks, especially those of the family Ostreidae (the true oysters), usually found adhering to rocks or other fixed objects in shallow water along the seacoasts, or in brackish water in the mouth of rivers.
• 1597-8, w, The Merry Wives of Windsor Chapter Act II, Scene II, Why, then the world's mine oyster
• 1731, Jonathan Swift, , 1841, The Works of Jonathan Swift, Volume 2, page 344,He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
2. The delicate morsel of dark meat contained in a small cavity of the bone on each side of the lower part of the back of a fowl.
3. A pale beige color tinted with grey or pink, like that of an oyster.
4. (colloquial, by analogy) A person who keeps secrets.

Adjective

1. Of a pale beige colour tinted with grey or pink, like that of an oyster.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To fish for oysters.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• storey, Troyes