Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A silvery blue carangid fish (Oligoplites saurus) of eastern Pacific and western Atlantic waters, having leathery skin and yellow fins.
  • noun Any of various other fishes having tough skin, including the filefishes and the triggerfishes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of several fishes
  • noun In botany, same as hickory-eucalyptus.
  • noun In botany: In Australia, any one of several other trees, so called from the toughness of their bark; especially the cooper's-wood, Alphitonia excelsa, the coach-wood, Ceratopetalum apetalum, Cryptocarya Meissneri of the laurel family, and Weinmannia rubifolia of the family Cunoniaceæ.
  • noun The larva of any one of several species of crane-flies of the family Tipulidæ. It lives underground in pasture-lands and has an especially tough skin.
  • noun In Australia, a thin pancake made of flour and water.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun any of several brightly colored tropical filefishes.
  • noun any of several New World tropical fishes having tiny embedded scales.
  • noun The tough-skinned larva of certain crane flies.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The larva of some crane flies
  • noun Any of several brightly coloured tropical fishes, of the family Balistidae, including the filefish and the triggerfish; leatherfish
  • noun Any of several Atlantic fishes, of the genus Oligoplites, that have a leathery skin; leatherjack

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun tough-skinned larva of certain crane flies
  • noun any of several brightly colored tropical filefishes
  • noun any of several New World tropical fishes having tiny embedded scales

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Prince Edward, his leatherjacket girlfriend, and his minders up and dancing in their seats.

    ɘloЯ 2010

  • Unfortunately, there wasn't any leatherjacket available at my fishmonger so I used Hiramasa Kingfish

    Archive 2009-01-01 Haalo 2009

  • Unfortunately, there wasn't any leatherjacket available at my fishmonger so I used Hiramasa Kingfish

    Hiramasa Kingfish Usuzukuri Haalo 2009

  • On the table was kiam chye (pickled veggie) and duck soup, asam fish (blackened and fried), leatherjacket fish, black ink solong (squid), fried shanghai greens, chicken wings, and prawn salads.

    ChuiCon 2006, part 6a (addendum) jlundberg 2006

  • A small, innocuous-looking fish called a chinaman leatherjacket is swarming in Sydney waters, attacking and eating anything that moves, from bare fishing hooks to large marlin.

    AustralianIT.com.au | Top Stories 2010

  • "It was swimming really slowly and I thought it was a leatherjacket but when we went over in the boat and I scooped it out with our landing net I knew straight away it was a barra," the 27-year-old from Concord said yesterday.

    AustralianIT.com.au | Top Stories 2010

  • OTTAWA - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to eat a specific brand of frozen leatherjacket fish after two people reported being sick.

    Jack's Newswatch 2009

  • DAVID hits London town wearing a leatherjacket, jeans and PINK scarf

    unknown title 2009

Comments

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  • It's a fish.

    January 2, 2012

  • The range of definitions demonstrates the metaphorical handiness of "leatherjacket." I would be surprised if the word is not used in some precincts to mean "tough guy." This will take more than one limerick.

    Your Aussie bloke's by nature hasty
    And lacks much patience with his pastry.
    He'll fry and stack it
    Like leatherjacket,
    Made quick and chewy but mighty tasty.

    In nature's rough survival racket
    How give an edge to those that lack it?
    If not fierce enough
    They'd best be tough
    And boast a name like leatherjacket.

    March 4, 2014