Salmon definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (44)

American Heritage Dictionary (2)

noun Any of various large food and game fishes of the genera Salmo and Oncorhynchus, of northern waters, having delicate pinkish flesh and characteristically swimming from salt to fresh water to spawn.
noun A moderate, light, or strong yellowish pink to a moderate reddish orange or light orange.

Century Dictionary (35)

A fish of the genus Salmo (S. salar), found in all the northern parts of Europe, America, and Asia. The salmon is both a marine and a fresh-water fish. Its normal locality may be said to be off the mouth or estuary of the larger rivers, whence, in the season of sexual excitement, it ascends to the spawning-beds, which are frequently far inland, near the head-waters of the rivers. On reaching the spawning-station, the female by means of her tail makes a furrow in the gravelly bed of the river, in which she deposits her spawn or eggs, numbering many thousands, which, when impregnated by the male accompanying her, she carefully covers up by rapid sweeps of her tail. At this season the snout of the male undergoes a strange transformation, the under jaw becoming hooked upward with a cartilaginous excrescence, which is used as a weapon in the combats which are frequent when two or more males attach themselves to one female. In this condition he is known as a kipper. The time occupied in spawning is from three to twelve days, and the season extends from the end of autumn till spring. After spawning, the salmon, both male and female, die or go to sea under the name of spent fish, foul fish, or kelts, the females being further distinguished as shedders or baggits. In from 80 to 140 days the young fish hatches from the egg. Then it is about five eighths of an inch long. In this embryonic state it is nourished from a vitellicle, or umbilical vesicle, suspended under the belly, containing the red yolk of the egg and oil-globules, to be absorbed later. When about fifty days old it is about an inch in length, and becomes a samlet or parr (see cut under parr.) It continues in the shallows of its native stream till the following spring, when it is from 3 to 4 inches long and is known as the May parr. It now descends into deeper parts of the river, where the weaker fish remain till the end of the second spring, the stronger ones till the end of the first spring only. When the season of its migration arrives, generally the month of May or June, the fins have become darker, and the fish has assumed a silvery hue. It is now known as a smolt or salmon-fry. The smolts now congregate into shoals and proceed leisurely seaward. On reaching the estuary they remain in its brackish water for a short time, and then proceed to the open sea. Of their life there nothing is known, except that they grow with such rapidity that a fish which reaches the estuary weighing, it may be, not more than 2 ounces, may return to it from the sea, after a few months, as a grilse, weighing 8 or 10 pounds. A grilse under 2 pounds is called a salmon-peal. In between two and three years the grilse becomes a salmon. The salmon returns in preference to the river in which it passed its earlier existence. It has been known to grow to the weight of 83 pounds; more generally it weighs from 15 to 25 pounds. It furnishes a delicious dish for the table, and is an important article of commerce. Its flesh is of a pinkish-orange color. The synonyms of salmon are very numerous. Nearly or quite exact local ones are mort, simen, sprod. Salmon under two years old, which have not entered the sea, are generally called parr, pink, and smolt, or, more locally, black-fin, brandling, brood, cocksper, fingerling, ginkin, graveling, gravel-laspring, hepper, jerkin, laspring, salmon-fry, salmon-spring, samlet, skegger, skerling, smelt, sparling, sprag. One which has returned from the sea a second time is a gerling; one which has remained in fresh water during summer is a laurel; a milter, or spawning male, may be called a gib-fish or summer-cock. In the Ribble, in Willughby's time, a two-year old salmon was called sprod; a supposed three-year fish mort, or perhaps pug; a four-year fish, a forktail; a five-year fish, a half-fish, and a six-year one, a salmon specifically.
One of various fishes of the same family as the above, but of different genera. Some of these species are recognizable by an increased number of the anal rays (14 to 20), and by the fact that the jaws in the males at the breeding-season become peculiarly developed and hooked. They form the genus Oncorhynchus, and are collectively called Pacific salmon. Five such species occur in the North Pacific. One of these, the humpbacked salmon, O. gorbuscha, has from 25 to 30 short gill-rakers and very small scales (over 200 in a longitudinal row). It reaches a weight of from 3 to 6 pounds, and is found as far south as Oregon or even in the Sacramento river. Another, the dog-salmon, O. keta or O. lagocephalus, has less than 25 short gill-rakers, moderately small scales (about 150 in a longitudinal row), 13 or 14 anal rays, and 13 or 14 branchiostegal rays: the spots are faint or obsolete. It attains a weight of about 12 pounds, and extends southward (sparingly) to the Sacramento river, but is of little value. The quinnat or king-salmon, O. chavicha or O. quinnat, has about 23 short gill-rakers, about 150 scales in a longitudinal row, 16 anal rays, 15 to 19 branchiostegal rays (those of the opposite sides often unlike), and the back and upper fins dotted with black. It reaches a weight of over 100 pounds, but the average in the Columbia river is about 22. It enters abundantly into the Sacramento river and still more numerously into the northern streams from both sides of the Pacific, and is by far the most important species of its genus. About 30,000,000 pounds are estimated to have been the average take for several years in the Columbia river alone, along whose banks extensive canneries are established to preserve the fish. The silver or kisutch salmon, O. kisutch, has about 23 rather slender gill-rakers, rather large scales (about 130 in a row), and is bluish-green on the back, silvery on the sides, and punctulated with blackish, but without decided spots except on the top of the head, back, dorsal and adipose fins, and the upper rudimentary rays of the caudal fin. It grows to a weight of from 3 to 8 pounds, and is abundant southward to the Sacramento river, but is of little economic value. The blue-back salmon, O. nerka or O. lycaodon, has about 30 or 40 comparatively long gill-rakers, rather large scales (about 130 in a row), and is normally colored bright-blue above and silvery on the sides, but the males in the fall become deep-red, and are then known in the interior as red fish. It attains a weight of from 4 to 8 pounds, and ascends the Columbia river and tributaries in abundance. It ranks next in value to the quinnat. In canning salmon in America the fish are cooked in the cans in which they are put up, unlike any fish canned in Europe, which are all cooked first and then canned and cooked again. (See sardine, 1.) The salmon are first cleaned and scaled, and have their heads, tails, and fins cut off. Then they are placed in tanks filled with salted water, where they remain some time to “slime” or be cleansed before being brought into the factory. They are then cut into pieces of the proper size to fill the can. These pieces are placed in cans, which are subsequently filled with brine. The raw fish, thus pickled, are soldered in the cans, which are next placed on forms holding many hundreds and lowered by machinery into steam-boilers, where they are cooked for an hour. The next step is a nice process called venting. A little hole is pricked in the can to allow the gas within to escape, when the vent-hole is instantly soldered. A second cooking now takes place, after which the cans are taken from the boilers and showered with cold water. If the vacuum is perfect, showing a sound can, the top hollows in with the cooling process. If a can is in the least swollen, it is rejected.
One of various fishes, not of the family Salmonidæ, suggestive of or mistaken for a salmon. A sciænoid fish, Cynoscion maculatus. See squeteague. [Southern coast of the U. S.] A percoideous fish of the genus Stizostedium; a pike-perch: more fully called jack-salmon. In New Zealand, a serranoid fish, Arripis salar. (See also the phrases below.)

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A party of Isidians, proceeding down the river rather further than usual, caught what we call a salmon. — My Philosophical Development
Farmed raised salmon is salmon which is raised for the purpose of eating. — Blogs 1 Weblog Network Articles
It's hard to do salmon well in a buffet situation where chafing dishes are used, but this salmon was the bomb and it went quickly, too, so there were no left-overs when I went up for seconds. — BC Bloggers
Broil until the salmon is the same color throughout, 6 to 8 minutes, depending on the thickness.
The Norwegian Food Inspectorate disputed the Russian claims, arguing that countries like Japan and Singapore, which have very strict food and fish laws, have never complained about lead in Norwegian salmon. — Fishupdate.com

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