Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The typical and leading genus of the oyster family, Ostreidæ having the shell inequilateral and inequivalve, with one valve flatter than the other.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A genus of bivalve Mollusca which includes the true oysters.

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

  • noun type genus of the family Ostreidae

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The Olys share with the celebrated European Belon a family name (ostrea), a pronounced, acquired-taste metallic tang, and a stark future: Both have all but vanished and been almost entirely replaced by hardy, fast-growing Japanese Pacific (gigas) oysters.

    The American Oyster Paradise Richard Nalley 2010

  • ([Greek: monothyra] of Aristotle), such as those just mentioned, and the other [Greek: ostrea] of Aphrodite, the Nerites (periwinkles, etc.), the purple shell and the Echineïs were also real Veneriae conchae.

    The Evolution of the Dragon G. Elliot Smith

  • The shore is lined by a barrier of sharp rocks, covered with species of ostrea and nerita, but although these were the only living testaceous animals that were found, the beach was covered with a multitude of dead and imperfect shells of various species.

    Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 1 Phillip Parker King

  • Eiulo presented the shell and its contents to Johnny, who seemed to value the former, quite as much as the latter, and presently ran off in search of Arthur, to inquire whether it should properly be classed with the "genus ostrea," or the "genus mytilus."

    The Island Home Richard Archer

  • “Don’t tell me, Maggie; Sunt etiam volucrum—Sunt etiam volucrum—ut ostrea, cetus——”69

    I. Tom’s “First Half”. Book II—School-Time 1917

  • I found shells embedded in limestone varying considerably in its hardness being sometimes very friable and the surface in some places presenting innumerable fragments of corallines, with pectens, spatangi, echini, ostrea and foraminifera.

    Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2 Thomas Mitchell 1823

  • _Sat. _ xv is faulty, and allusion to the oysters of Richborough (_ostrea

    Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal Harold Edgeworth Butler 1914

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