minnow

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of a large group of small freshwater fishes of the family Cyprinidae, widely used as live bait.
2. n. Any of various other small, often silver-colored fishes.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The smallest of the British cyprinoid fishes, Phoxinus aphya or lævis. Artificial minnows are nsed by anglers for trolling, spinning, or casting, and are made of metal, glass, and rubber, gilded, silvered, or painted attractively.
2. n. In the United States, one of many different fishes of small size, Any cyprinoid of the genus Phoxinus, of which there are several species, from 1½ to 3 inches long, in the Mississippi basin and westward, as P. neogœus, P. flammeus, P. phlegethontis. This is the correct use of minnow, though in popnlar speech it extends to various other little cyprinoids, also loosely called roach, dace, shiner, etc. Among these may be mentioned the red minnows of the genus Chrosomus, as C. erythrogas-ter, one of the prettiest of all, 2 or 3 inches long; the silvery minnow, Hybognathus nuchalis, and others of this genus; the black-headed minnow or fathead, Pimephales promelas; the blunt-nosed minnow, Hyborhynchus notalus; the Texan hardmouth minnow, Cochlognathus ornatus; the bull-headed and straw-colored minnows. Cliola taurocephalus and C. straminea; the spotted-tail, C. stigmaturus, and more than 60 other kinds of Cliola; about 50 shiners of the genus Minnilus; various species of the genera Rhinichthys, Ceratichthys, Apocope, Couesius, etc. These abound in fresh waters of the United States, and minnow is the nsual name of all those which have not more particular designations.
3. n. A name sometimes given to a very small fish of New Zealand, Galaxias attenuatus, of the family Galaxidæ. Also called whitebait. The Maori name is inanga.
4. n. See leatherside.

Wiktionary

1. n. A small freshwater fish of the carp family.
2. n. More generally, any small fish.
3. n. soccer A low-level team, in comparison to their opponents.
4. v. fishing to fish minnows
5. v. fishing to fish (especially trout) using a minnow as bait

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A small European fresh-water cyprinoid fish (Phoxinus lævis, formerly Leuciscus phoxinus); sometimes applied also to the young of larger kinds; -- called also minim and minny. The name is also applied to several allied American species, of the genera Phoxinus, Notropis, or Minnilus, and Rhinichthys.
2. n. (Zoöl.) Any of numerous small American cyprinodont fishes of the genus Fundulus, and related genera. They live both in fresh and in salt water. Called also killifish, minny, and mummichog.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. very small European freshwater fish common in gravelly streams