shoal

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A shallow place in a body of water.
2. n. A sandy elevation of the bottom of a body of water, constituting a hazard to navigation; a sandbank or sandbar.
3. v. To become shallow: The river shoals suddenly here from eight to two fathoms.
4. v. To make shallow: The approach to the harbor was shoaled in the storm.
5. v. To come or sail into a shallower part of.
6. adj. Having little depth; shallow.
7. n. A large group; a crowd.
8. n. A large school of fish or other marine animals.
9. v. To come together in large numbers; throng.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Shallow; of little depth.
2. n. A place where the water of a stream, lake, or sea is of little depth; a sand-bank or bar; a shallow; more particularly, among seamen, a sand-bank which shows at low water: also used figuratively.
3. To become shallow, or more shallow.
4. Nautical, to cause to become shallow, or more shallow; proceed from a greater into a lesser depth of: as, a vessel in sailing shoals her water.
5. n. A great multitude; a crowd; a throng; of fish, a school: as, a shoal of herring; shoals of people.
6. To assemble in a multitude; crowd; throng; school, as fish.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Shallow.
2. n. A sandbank or sandbar creating a shallow.
3. v. To arrive at a shallow (or less deep) area.
4. v. To cause a shallowing; to come to a more shallow part of.
5. n. Any large number of persons or things.
6. n. A large number of fish (or other sea creatures) of the same species swimming together.
7. v. To collect in a shoal; to throng.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A great multitude assembled; a crowd; a throng; -- said especially of fish.
2. v. To assemble in a multitude; to throng.
3. adj. Having little depth; shallow.
4. n. A place where the water of a sea, lake, river, pond, etc., is shallow; a shallow.
5. n. A sandbank or bar which makes the water shoal.
6. v. To become shallow.
7. v. To cause to become more shallow; to come to a more shallow part of.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a stretch of shallow water
2. n. a sandbank in a stretch of water that is visible at low tide
3. v. become shallow
4. n. a large group of fish
5. v. make shallow