Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See glass eel.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A young eel; especially, a young conger- or sea-eel.
Wiktionary
- n. a young eel
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A young eel; a young conger or sea eel; -- called also
elvene .
WordNet 3.0
- n. young eel; may be sauteed or batter-fried
- n. young eel
Etymologies
- From earlier eelfare ("migration of eels upstream"), from eel + fare. (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of eelfare, a brood of young eels, the passage of young eels up a river : eel + fare, journey (obsolete). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The elver is the baby freshwater eel that is born in the Sargasso Sea south of Bermuda and drifts over to Europe on the Gulf Stream in the spring.”
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph
“Shortz, whose undemanding intellectual rigor -- An adult elver?”
“Thanks to everyone who pointed out that an elver is a kind of eel.”
“The change of V F strongly suggests a South Western origin of the word elver.”
“The young elver, at least a year old, which makes its way from the open sea to the estuaries and rivers.”
The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told
“By the time they have reached the elver stage, they have made their way, guided only by instinct, from the deep sea to the surface, and thence to the mouths of rivers; these they ascend in millions, and in their endeavour to get into fresh water, they have to overcome obstacles such as would deter most boys and girls.”
“And it is true that the "Whitebait of the West", as the elver is known locally, currently sells for £250 a kilogram.”
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph
“The elver may be fishy lucre to the hardy but for the rest of us it is easier to keep the day job.”
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph
“The elver has fed and financed generations of the city, providing protein for the poor and pin money for the penniless.”
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph
“Today the elver is sold to the eel-eating Germans, Poles and Dutch, who all use it to restock their depleted rivers.”
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘elver’.
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fish list
lots and lots of fish, a piscatorial
wetdreamablet, agnathan, ahi, ahuru, ahuruhuru, albacore, albicore, alec, alewife, allice, allis, amberjack and 840 more...
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PECH - marine species
African cuttlefish, Alaska plaice, Alaska pollock, Alaska pollack, walleye pollock, alewife, gaspereau, river herring, sawbelly, allis shad, American angler, goosefish and 994 more...
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Eels
Words and phrases about eels.
apodal, conger, grig, never served raw, eelpout, eel, eelskin briefcase, eelskin, tribes in Persia ..., sniggling, sniggle, eel spear and 130 more...
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Migration
Sandhill Crane, Canada Goose, lemmings, monarch butterfly, garter snakes, salmon, anadromous, catadromous, eels, gnu, gray whales, cedar waxwing and 18 more...
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cross words
the good ole boys of the nyt crossword puzzle
oleo, oreo, stlo, amie, ares, eros, erato, sloe, ogee, apse, enola, ecru and 94 more...
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wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
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Words that were new to me
but now they're not because I looked them up. In cases of polysemy or homography, *of course* it was the oddest meaning that stumped me. ;)
Procrustean bed, idem sonans, hob, backcap, quango, cheap-jack, pantechnicon, churrigueresco, chopfallen, maritorious, supererogation, catimini and 212 more...
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Are we there yet?
These have some growing up to do.
colt, foal, kitten, cub, pup, heifer, larva, imago, veliger, trochophore, grub, maggot and 178 more...
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Animals With Nifty Names
hamster, gerbil, ferret, horse, skink, newt, shark, octopus, weasel, panda, giraffe, hyena and 129 more...
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trout, trout, trout!
fish that are fun to say
trout, gar, walleye, mooneye, arctic char, sockeye salmon, chum, freshwater drum, three-spine stick..., eel, waccamaw killfish, shad and 22 more...
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Sog's Ark
Unlike Noah, I have only one of each animal.
salamander, panther, aardvark, leopard, elver, weasel, cheetah, orang utan, snail, parakeet, slater, scarab and 23 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
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baby and neutered animal names
joey, cygnet, calf, kid, pup, cub, fledgling, duckling, fry, gosling, nymph, chick and 62 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for elver.
frogapplause As young eels attain pigment and begin the journey into freshwater, they are called elvers. Jul 13, 2012
bilby Indeed. Yeck. Feb 2, 2009
vanishedone WeirdNet is eager to give culinary advice. Feb 2, 2009
trivet baby eel Feb 25, 2007