Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various marine bivalve mollusks of the family Pectinidae, having fan-shaped shells with a radiating fluted pattern.
  • noun The edible adductor muscle of a scallop.
  • noun A shell of a scallop, or a dish in a similar shape, used for baking and serving seafood.
  • noun One of a series of curved projections forming an ornamental border.
  • intransitive verb To edge (cloth, for example) with a series of curved projections.
  • intransitive verb To bake in a casserole with milk or a sauce and often with bread crumbs.
  • intransitive verb To cut (meat) into thin boneless slices.
  • intransitive verb To gather scallops for eating or sale.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To mark or cut the edge of into convex rounded lobes.
  • To cook in a scallop; hence, specifically, to prepare by mixing with crumbs, seasoning, and baking until browned on the top: as, to scallop fish or meat.
  • noun A bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidæ; any pecten.
  • noun One of the valves of a scallop or pecten; a scallop-shell, as a utensil; also, a scallop-shell as the badge of a pilgrim. See scallop-shell.
  • noun In heraldry, the representation of a scallop.
  • noun A small shallow pan in which fish, oysters, mince-meat, etc., are cooked, or are finally browned after being cooked.
  • noun One of a number of small curves resembling segments of circles, cut by way of ornament on the edge of a thing, the whole simulating the outer edge of a scallop-shell.
  • noun A lace band or collar scalloped round the edges.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of marine bivalve mollusks of the genus Pecten and allied genera of the family Pectinidæ. The shell is usually radially ribbed, and the edge is therefore often undulated in a characteristic manner. The large adductor muscle of some the species is much used as food. One species (Vola Jacobæus) occurs on the coast of Palestine, and its shell was formerly worn by pilgrims as a mark that they had been to the Holy Land. Called also fan shell. See pecten, 2.
  • noun One of series of segments of circles joined at their extremities, forming a border like the edge or surface of a scallop shell.
  • noun One of the shells of a scallop; also, a dish resembling a scallop shell.
  • transitive verb To mark or cut the edge or border of into segments of circles, like the edge or surface of a scallop shell. See scallop, n., 2.
  • transitive verb (Cookery) To bake in scallop shells or dishes; to prepare with crumbs of bread or cracker, and bake. See Scalloped oysters, below.

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

  • noun Any of various marine bivalve molluscs of the family Pectinidae which are free-swimming.
  • noun a curved projection, making part of a decoration
  • noun a fillet of meat, escalope
  • noun a form of fried potato
  • verb To (be) cut in the shape of a crescent
  • verb transitive to make or cook scallops
  • verb transitive to bake in a casserole (gratin), originally in a scallop shell; especially used in form scalloped
  • verb intransitive to harvest scallops

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

  • verb form scallops in
  • verb fish for scallops
  • verb decorate an edge with scallops
  • verb bake in a sauce, milk, etc., often with breadcrumbs on top
  • verb shape or cut in scallops
  • noun thin slice of meat (especially veal) usually fried or broiled
  • noun one of a series of rounded projections (or the notches between them) formed by curves along an edge (as the edge of a leaf or piece of cloth or the margin of a shell or a shriveled red blood cell observed in a hypertonic solution etc.)
  • noun edible muscle of mollusks having fan-shaped shells; served broiled or poached or in salads or cream sauces
  • noun edible marine bivalve having a fluted fan-shaped shell that swim by expelling water from the shell in a series of snapping motions

Etymologies

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

[Middle English scalop, from Old French escalope, shell, perhaps of Germanic origin (akin to Dutch schelp, seashell), or from Old French escale, scale; see scale + Old French (envel)ope, enveloping cover (from enveloper, to envelop; see envelop).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French escalope ("shell").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word scallop.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Led his troops with furious gallops,

    To charge whole regiments of scallops.

    --Samuel Butler, 1678, Hudibras

    November 8, 2007

  • Give me my scallop-shell of quiet,

    My staff of faith to walk upon;

    My scrip of joy, immortal diet;

    My bottle of salvation;

    My gown of glory, hope's true gage,

    And thus I'll take my pilgrimage!

    --Sir Walter Raleigh, 1603, Pilgrimage

    November 14, 2009