Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The soft, green liver of cooked lobster, considered a delicacy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The soft yellowish or greenish hepatic substance or so-called liver of the lobster. As used for food it is also called sauce. See green-gland (under gland) and hepatopancreas.
Wiktionary
- n. cooking The hepatopancreas of a crustacean.
WordNet 3.0
- n. edible greenish substance in boiled lobster
Etymologies
- Galibi tamali. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A substance known as tomalley access the lobster's liver and pancreas.”
“Same with crawfish tomalley except orange instead of green.”
“I think I would like tomalley more if it weren't that color.”
“And, I'm sure this may gross some of you out but to me, it's like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: lots of tomalley, the creamy, green substance found in the cavity of the lobster:”
“Is it safe to eat fish skin or crab and lobster entrails (tomalley)? —”
Consumer Reports: Q&A: Is it safe to eat fish skins and guts?
“The Food and Drug Administration warned against eating lobster tomalley in the summer of 2008 due to high levels of a naturally occurring toxin likely stemming from red tides, or dangerous algal bloom.”
Consumer Reports: Q&A: Is it safe to eat fish skins and guts?
“Don't eat the green tomalley, or liver, in lobsters or the "mustard" in blue crabs; they may contain high levels of harmful chemicals known as PCBs or other toxins.”
“And you should avoid eating tomalley, the greenish substance in a crustacean's gut that serves as a liver and pancreas, even though some people consider it a delicacy.”
Consumer Reports: Q&A: Is it safe to eat fish skins and guts?
“Is it safe to eat fish skin or crab and lobster entrails tomalley?”
Consumer Reports: Q&A: Is it safe to eat fish skins and guts?
“I like to also reach under the shell and scrape out the yellow tomalley.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tomalley’.
-
250 Spelling Words
A selected sampling of words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
orecchiette, rhabdomancy, guayabera, orthoepy, opisthenar, maguey, proem, ciabatta, cioppino, banns, concinnity, asthenia and 237 more...
-
It Has a Name??
Yes. Yes it does.
aglet, armsaye, scroop, rowel, ferrule, rasceta, chanking, philtrum, frenulum, keeper, agelast, punt and 285 more...
-
Maineisms
Some of these were taken from older literature and have fallen out of use in the past few decades, but many are still used today in the same way they were used a century ago. By no means a compreh...
Yankeedom, wizzled, wing and wing, wickie-up, whiffletree, weewaw, wangan, wainy, upstair, twice-laid, tunket, trig and 136 more...
-
sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
-
C. S. Bird – Grandiloquent Dictionary
All the words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
946 of these 2700 words do not yield any results in six different dictionaries, hence many of them might be misspellings.
More in...abacinate, abcedarian, abderian, ablegate, abligurition, ablutophobia, abnormous, acarophobia, acathasia, accipitrine, accidia, accubitus and 2690 more...
-
Lessons of Wordie / Wordnik
Words and concepts I learned on Wordie, or happened upon as I roamed through dictionaries and websites seeking ammunition.
usquebaugh, baugh, plunderbunny, plinthiform, hendiatris, buckjumper, peripetia, trenchmore, antifogmatic, felon, whitlow, paronychia and 152 more...
-
...:::bella:::...
originally started as an attempt to collect words I found visually and auditorially beautiful, as well as psychically evocative, this has become nothing more than a grab bag of word curiosities, a ...
bergamot, jambalaya, bee's knees, heliotrope, hosanna, gamboge, aureole, filial, madrigal, multilingual, sacrosanct, sojourn and 1072 more...
-
looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
-
Words encountered on freerice.com
The perfect site for any true wordie who wants to help in small ways.
amaurosis, telluric, scandent, paludal, tomalley, mithridate, adit, futhark, premorse, chigoe, chinch, ennead and 24 more...
-
words I wish I hadn't looked up
cleveland steamer, casu marzu, tyremesis, gleet, tomalley, phacoemulsification, surstromming, huitlacoche, natto, copulatory plug, scaphism, ascites and 9 more...
-
Stomach turners
These make me uncomfortable or queasy.
killcow, adipocere, roman shower, copremesis, ascites, scaphism, tomalley, gleet, tyremesis, casu marzu, vomitive, paragonimiasis and 11 more...
-
Yuck
Icky, ooey things, grossness or sundry objectionables.
quaggy, gurry, trepan, head cheese, bodewash, casu marzu, lardon, balut, nidhoggr, tarantelli, dairy group, vesiga and 58 more...
-
that's just nasty
leint, lant, lantrify, lotium, lientery, premarin, blissom, bromidrosis, podobromhidrosis, renifleur, omnifutuant, trocar and 15 more...
-
*hork*
This just needed to happen.
snotsicle, exploding colosto..., smegma, Vegetarian Haggis, haggis, casu marzu, jugged hare, jellied eels, community, surstromming, surströmming, Draculamya and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tomalley.

dontcry *hork* May 30, 2011
knitandpurl "Chilled half-lobster, with an unsightly smear of tomalley vinaigrette, gets by on its winning personality (it's well steamed and satisfying, and it's lobster, after all."
- Shauna Lyon, "Tables for Two: The John Dory Oyster Bar" in the May 30, 2011 issue of the New Yorker, p 18 May 30, 2011
strev not to be confused with hot tomales Jun 22, 2009
sionnach What Weirdnet fails to mention is that tomalley is also the brother of famed Australian poet Ern Malley, and a direct descendant of Ireland's infamous swashbuckling Elizabethan piratess, Grace O' Malley (aka 'Granuaile').
Anyone wishing to learn more about swashbuckling Elizabethan Irish lady pirates is referred to the excellent "Skye O' Malley" books by the redoubtable Bertrice Small. Jun 21, 2009
madmouth a slight bump on the head from WeirdNet if one clicks "more" Jun 21, 2009
reesetee Eeew. Eeew. Eeew. Oct 13, 2007
sionnach TORONTO -- While it seems hard to imagine the warning is necessary, Health Canada is urging people to limit their consumption of lobster tomalley - the green goo most people quickly scrap away as they get ready to sink their teeth into succulent lobster meat.
Turns out the tomalley, which serves as a liver and pancreas for a lobster, can sometimes contain a toxin known as paralytic shellfish poison. If ingested in large amounts, the toxin can cause tingling and numbing of the arms and legs, headaches, dizziness and nausea. In rare cases paralysis, respiratory difficult and even death can occur, if medical help isn't procured.
Adults should limit themselves to the tomalley of no more than two lobsters a day, the department warns, while one a day should be the limit for children. Oct 13, 2007