Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small marine food fish (Clupea sprattus) of northeast Atlantic waters that is eaten fresh or smoked and is often canned in oil as a sardine. Also called brisling.
- n. Any of various other similar fishes, such as a young herring.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A name of various species of rushes, as Juncus articulatus, etc.
- n. plural Small wood.
- n. A small clupeoid fish of European waters, Clupea (Harengula) sprattus. At one time the sprat was thought to be the young of the herring, pilchard, or shad; but it can be easily distinguished from the young of any of these fishes by the sharply notched edge of the abdomen. Young sprats, an inch or two long, are the fishes of which white-bait mainly or largely consists at some seasons. The sprat is known in Scotland by the name of garvie or garvie-her-ring.
- n. A name of other fishes A young herring.
- To fish for sprats.
- n. A small coin.
- n. Same as thread-herring.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of various small, herring-like, marine fish in the family Clupeidae.
- n. floor, story/storey (level)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A small European herring (Clupea sprattus) closely allied to the common herring and the pilchard; -- called also
garvie . The name is also applied to small herring of different kinds. - n. A California surf-fish (Rhacochilus toxotes); -- called also
alfione , andperch .
WordNet 3.0
- n. small fatty European fish; usually smoked or canned like sardines
- n. small herring processed like a sardine
Etymologies
- Middle English sprot, spratte, from Old English sprot.
Examples
“That most extensively employed in this country is the sprat, which is occasionally caught in enormous quantities on the Norfolk coast, and used as an application for turnips.”
“Even Barack Obama might think that a very fat sprat to catch a rather bony mackerel.”
The Guardian: Financial Times circulation drifts in turbulent times
“Truth be told, everything passed me by in the 1980's because that was our three babies in four years decade and mostly I was either a beached whale or a frazzled sprat.”
“They save the evil gods for the DMG since no right thinking young sprat would want their PC to worship one of them, but they do list them – Asmodeus, Bane, Gruumsh, Lolth, Tiamat, Vecna, and newcomers Torog (Underdark) and Zehir (dark, poison, assassins – Pyremius and Beltar merged).”
“There is Princess Gloriana amid sea demigods with conch-shell trumpets and mer-people and fishes of every size from sprat to leviathan.”
“Lud-in-the-Mist was one of my very first fantasy books read it years ago when I was but a sprat and nothing has ever quite come up to that standard.”
“But ever since I was a sprat I have been given this vague half-formed yet tremendously potent feeling that rock music meant something.”
“I loved his robot books and Lucky Starr novels when I was a sprat but as an adult, eh.”
I Really Shouldn't Do This: The Guardian's Science Fiction And Fantasy Novel List
“Glissaundra is my godmother, bless her, and when I was a sprat she once gave me a jar filled with a powder that she said would restore things to their true forms.”
From The Valley Of Lost Projects: Princess Lucinda And The Missing Moon
“Note the sprat demonstrating the odd gate that makes it hard to track these animals.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sprat’.
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Rats
rats, rat, tree-rat, pilori-rat, prorate, pro rata, Ratso Rizzo, ratfink, rat pack, Rat Pack, Rats!, rat race and 157 more...
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words 2
janiform, remora, sprat, stoa, sone, lea, scow, atoll, Weltschmerz, barmy, concupiscent, actinic and 14 more...
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Herring
herring, pickled herring, red herring, bloater, herring-buss, herring-fishery, herring pond, herring-pond, whitebait, herringbone, herring-bone, buss and 49 more...
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