Definitions

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

  • noun A small cod or similar fish, such as haddock or hake, especially one split and boned for cooking.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To shred; prepare for cooking by tearing in small pieces: as, scrodded fish.
  • noun Scrodded fish, or a dish prepared by scrodding fish.
  • noun A young codfish, especially one that is split and fried or boiled.

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

  • noun Local, U.S. A young codfish, especially when cut open on the back and dressed.

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

  • noun New England A generic term for cod, pollock, haddock, or other whitefish.
  • verb nonstandard, New England, humorous Simple past tense and past participle of screw.

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

  • noun flesh of young Atlantic cod weighing up to 2 pounds; also young haddock and pollock; often broiled
  • noun young Atlantic cod or haddock especially one split and boned for cooking

Etymologies

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

[Possibly back-formation (influenced by cod and codfish) from English dialectal (Cornwall) scrawed fish, from scraw, scroal, to prepare (young fish) by splitting, salting, partial drying, and broiling.]

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Examples

  • Mackerel will broil in from twelve to twenty minutes, young cod (also called scrod) in from twenty to thirty minutes, bluefish in from twenty to thirty minutes, salmon, in from twelve to twenty minutes, and whitefish, bass, mullet, etc., in about eighteen minutes.

    Miss Parloa's New Cook Book Maria Parloa 1876

  • The "scrod" joke that I was referencing involved a Boston cabdriver.

    Blog updates 2009

  • Look for anything with the texture needed to stand up to those big flavors, such as scrod, haddock, hake, or halibut; sea bass, or snapper work well too.

    Serious Eats 2009

  • In the sentence “Where can I get scrod?”, the cabbie is apparently taking “get scrod” as the periphrastic passive voice of “screw”.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » More on Information About Prostitution 2010

  • So he gets into a cab, and asks the driver, “Can you take me to where I can get scrod?”

    The Volokh Conspiracy » More on Information About Prostitution 2010

  • In the sentence “Where can I get scrod?”, the cabbie is apparently taking “get scrod” as the periphrastic passive voice of “screw”.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » More on Information About Prostitution 2010

  • VICE ADMIRAL: We are north of Boston, where the women lose their muscle tone playing bridge, making stupid jokes about how they like to go into Boston to get “scrod.”

    Nazi Muff-Diving: It Could've Happened Here Con Chapman 2011

  • Bink looked like a baked scrod who'd just been — well, scrod.

    Matt Slade, Esq.--Pro Bono Czar 2010

  • VICE ADMIRAL:   We are north of Boston, where the women lose their muscle tone playing bridge, making stupid jokes about how they like to go into Boston to get “scrod”.

    Nazi Muff-Divers: It Could've Happened Here 2010

  • Today cod and its closest family members—Atlantic pollock, cusk (which is sold as scrod), haddock, hake (also sold as whiting)—are far less plentiful and more likely to be eaten fresh.

    One Big Table Molly O’Neill 2010

Comments

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  • When seen on a Boston menu it can refer to any kind of white fish. Usually cod but no one's quite sure.

    October 15, 2008

  • Compare mystery bag.

    October 15, 2008

  • I thought it was the past-tense of scrad...

    October 16, 2008

  • "Once freezing and filleting were put together, 'fish fillets' became a leading product. Scrod, a small cod fillet, became increasingly popular. The word was used in the United States at least as early as 1849, though its origin seems to be a Dutch word, schrode, meaning 'strip.' Once filleting became industrialized, scrod became a household word."

    —Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (New York: Penguin, 1997), 137

    July 16, 2009

  • No-one's done the taxi driver joke yet? (Yes, I know dontcry was hinting at it. But this is a journal of record.)

    July 17, 2009