Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various large salmonid food and game fishes of the genera Oncorhynchus and Salmo of northern waters, having pink or red flesh and characteristically swimming from salt to fresh water to spawn.
  • noun The flesh of a salmon, used as food.
  • noun A yellowish pink to light or reddish orange.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To sicken or poison with salmon, as dogs.
  • noun See sauqui.
  • noun A fish of the genus Salmo (S. salar), found in all the northern parts of Europe, America, and Asia.
  • noun One of various fishes of the same family as the above, but of different genera.
  • noun One of various fishes, not of the family Salmonidæ, suggestive of or mistaken for a salmon.
  • noun The upper bricks in a kiln, which in firing receive the least heat: so called from their color.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of a reddish yellow or orange color, like that of the flesh of the salmon.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of fishes of the genus Salmo and allied genera. The common salmon (Salmo salar) of Northern Europe and Eastern North America, and the California salmon, or quinnat, are the most important species. They are extensively preserved for food. See quinnat.
  • noun the namaycush.
  • noun a salmon of Western North America (Oncorhynchus keta).
  • noun a Pacific-coast salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha).
  • noun the quinnat.
  • noun a variety of the common salmon (var. Sebago), long confined in certain lakes in consequence of obstructions that prevented it from returning to the sea. This last is called also dwarf salmon.
  • noun A reddish yellow or orange color, like the flesh of the salmon.
  • noun (Bot.) a large red raspberry growing from Alaska to California, the fruit of the Rubus Nutkanus.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a stickleback (Gasterosteus cataphractus) of Western North America and Northern Asia.
  • noun See Fish ladder, under Fish.
  • noun a young salmon.
  • noun a certain device for catching salmon.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A name that is also applied locally to the adult black spotted trout (Salmo purpuratus), and to the steel head and other large trout of the Pacific coast.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One of several species of fish of the Salmonidae family.
  • noun A yellowish pink colour, the colour of cooked salmon.
  • noun Cockney rhyming slang snout (tobacco; from salmon and trout)
  • adjective Having a yellowish pink colour.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various large food and game fishes of northern waters; usually migrate from salt to fresh water to spawn
  • noun a pale pinkish orange color
  • adjective of orange tinged with pink
  • noun flesh of any of various marine or freshwater fish of the family Salmonidae
  • noun a tributary of the Snake River in Idaho

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English samoun, from Old French saumon, from Latin salmō, salmōn-; see sel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English samon, saumon, from Anglo-Norman saumon, from Old French saumon, from Latin salmō, salmōn-. Displaced native Middle English lax, from Old English leax.

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Examples

Comments

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  • I once knew someone who consistently pronounced this word phonetically. Drove me nuts. This person also said "debt" as if the B were not silent.

    February 6, 2007

  • I've already been outed as that guy. Or, at least, a close friend.

    February 6, 2007

  • Oops... *blushing*.

    February 6, 2007

  • I know a Swedish woman who pronounces it that way. It is actually charming. :)

    July 26, 2007

  • Slumry, click on uselessness' "outed" link below for lots of mispronunciation mayhem.

    July 26, 2007

  • Thanks, R.

    July 26, 2007

  • “And be that semeliminal salmon solemonly angled, ingate and outgate.” --Finnegans Wake

    January 17, 2013