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Received-Pronunciation:
/ʃɑːk/
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General-American:
/ʃɑɹk/
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US:
Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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homophone: shock (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)
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rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)k
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CMU ARPABET:
SH AA1 R K
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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Any predatory fish of the superorder Selachimorpha, with a cartilaginous skeleton and 5 to 7 gill slits on each side of its head.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
Topics: biology, ichthyology, natural-sciences, zoology
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Meat of this animal, consumed as food.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Synonyms: none provided
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Any fish of the class Chondrichthyes, especially an extinct shark-like holocephalian.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly, countable, uncountable
Topics: biology, history, human-sciences, natural-sciences, paleontology, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Synonyms: none provided
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A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.
Any fish in the genus Epalzeorhynchos.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.
Any fish in the genus Balantiocheilos.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.
An iridescent shark (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Synonyms: none provided
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A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.
A roseline shark (Dawkinsia denisonii).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Synonyms: none provided
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A freshwater fish that resembles a true shark (Selachimorpha) in appearance or movement; a freshwater shark.
A paroon shark (Pangasius sanitwongsei).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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A noctuid moth of species Cucullia umbratica.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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A university student who is not a fresher that has engaged in sexual activity with a fresher; usually habitually and with multiple people.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, countable
Qualifier: university slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Synonyms: none provided
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Someone who exploits others, for example by trickery, lies, usury, extortion.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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A sleazy and amoral lawyer.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, informal
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An ambulance chaser.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, informal
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A relentless and resolute person or group, especially in business.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
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A person that excels in a particular field.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
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A person that excels in a particular field.
A very good poker or pool player. Compare fish (a bad poker player).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal, proscribed
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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A person who feigns ineptitude to win money from others.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: games, hobbies, lifestyle, sports
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Synonyms: none provided
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To fish for sharks.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive, rare
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Of a university student who is not a fresher (first-year undergraduate), and especially towards the start of the academic year:
To engage in sexual activity with a fresher.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, derogatory, mildly, transitive
Qualifier: university slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Synonyms: none provided
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Of a university student who is not a fresher (first-year undergraduate), and especially towards the start of the academic year:
To cruise for casual sex with a fresher at a bar or club.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, derogatory, intransitive, mildly
Qualifier: university slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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To steal or obtain through fraud.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
Examples
Shakespeare and others, Sir Thomas More (c. 1593) act 2, sc. 4: "Other ruffians...Would shark on you."
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
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To play the petty thief; to practice fraud or trickery; to swindle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Synonyms: none provided
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To live by shifts and stratagems.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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To pick or gather indiscriminately or covertly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
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any of numerous elongate mostly marine carnivorous fishes with heterocercal caudal fins and tough skin covered with small toothlike scales
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Synonyms: none provided
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Broader terms: elasmobranch, selachian
Narrower terms: cow shark, six-gilled shark, Hexanchus griseus, mackerel shark, thresher, thrasher, thresher shark, fox shark, Alopius vulpinus, carpet shark, Orectolobus barbatus, nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum, sand tiger, sand shark, Carcharias taurus, Odontaspis taurus, whale shark, Rhincodon typus, cat shark, requiem shark, dogfish, hammerhead, hammerhead shark, angel shark, angelfish, Squatina squatina, monkfish
a person who is unusually skilled in certain ways
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
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Synonyms: none provided
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Broader terms: expert
a person who is ruthless and greedy and dishonest
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Broader terms: wrongdoer, offender
Narrower terms: usurer, loan shark, moneylender, shylock
hunt shark
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Broader terms: fish
play the shark; act with trickery
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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Broader terms: cheat, chisel
From Middle English shark (used by Thomas Beckington in 1442 to refer to a kind of fish), of uncertain origin. Most likely from a semantic extension of the German-derived shark (“scoundrel”), see below. The fish was originally called a dogfish or haye in English and Middle English. Its name in Old English is unknown, although some uses of the word hranfisċ that do not appear to carry the sense of "whale" may have been referencing it. alternative theories Some older dictionaries derived the word from Latin c(h)archarias, c(h)acharus (from Ancient Greek), but admit that "the requisite [Old French] forms intermediate between E. shark and L. carcharus are not found, and it is not certain that the name [shark] was orig. applied to the fish; it may have been first used of a greedy man". Other older authorities speculated that the word might derive from Yucatec Maya xok (“fish”) (/ʃok/), as John Hawkins brought a specimen from the area where Mayan was spoken to England in the 1560s. However, the 1442 use rules out a New World origin for the word.
From German Schurke (“scoundrel”); compare Dutch schurk.
Probably from the "steal" senses above, but perhaps related to shear. Compare shirk.