sardine

Plural: sardines

Noun

• A small, oily fish, often packed tightly in cans.
• small fatty fish usually canned
• any of various small edible herring or related food fishes frequently canned
• a deep orange-red variety of chalcedony
• small fishes found in great schools along coasts of Europe; smaller and rounder than herring
• Any one of several species of small herring which are commonly preserved in olive oil or in tins for food, especially the pilchard, or European sardine (Sardina pilchardus, syn. Clupea pilchardus). The American sardines of the Atlantic coast are mostly the young of the Atlantic herring and of the menhaden.
• Someone packed or crammed into a small space.
• carnelian.
• Dark-brown sard.

Verb

• to fish for sardines
• to pack or cram together tightly.

Adj

• Characteristic of a sardius.

Examples

• He felt like a SARDINE in a can trying to find space for his seven-letter word.
• They feasted on premium sardines packed in olive oil, as did their hunting dogs, who insisted on joining the meal.
• They watched bemused as countless sardines disgorged from a railway car that was never designed to hold so many passengers.

Synonyms

pilchard, sard, Sardina pilchardus, sardius

Anagrams of sardine