Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various small freshwater and marine fishes of the family Gasterosteidae, having erectile spines along the back.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Any fish of the family Gasterosteidæ: so called from the sharp spines of the back.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of small fishes of the genus Gasterosteus and allied genera. The back is armed with two or more sharp spines. They inhabit both salt and brackish water, and construct curious nests. Called also
sticklebag ,sharpling , andprickleback .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any one of numerous
species of smallfishes of thegenus Gasterosteus and allied genera. The back is armed with two or moresharp spines . They inhabit bothsalt andbrackish water , and construct curiousnests .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun small (2-4 inches) pugnacious mostly scaleless spiny-backed fishes of northern fresh and littoral waters having elaborate courtship; subjects of much research
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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On the crest of a cross-grained stickleback, that is caught with a crooked pin;
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, July 23, 1892 Various
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One wife, however, does not suffice to fill the nest with eggs; and the stickleback is a firm believer in the advantages of large families.
A Book of Natural History Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. Various 1891
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For, like almost all polygamists, your stickleback is a terrible fighter.
A Book of Natural History Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. Various 1891
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A kingfisher, an airborne jewel, whirrs past, stickleback in its beak, and disappears into a thicket of riparian willow.
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When held in the right place, it could create the illusion that a single stickleback was accompanied by another scout.
SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011
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The money came from the proceeds of a special experiment devised by Manfred Milinski, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, a connoisseur of food and fine wine, a zoologist and naturalist who feels equally at home with people and stickleback fish, as we saw in chapter 1.
SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011
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A real-life example of such a contest was reported in 1987, when Manfred Milinski, now the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Ploen, Germany, studied the behavior of stickleback fish.
SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011
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A kingfisher, an airborne jewel, whirrs past, stickleback in its beak.
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Milinski found that stickleback fish rely on the Tit-for-Tat strategy during this risky maneuver.
SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011
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Yet each little fish has an understandable incentive to hang back a little and let the other stickleback soak up more of the risk.
SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011
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