oyster
Americannoun
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oysters
plural
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any of several edible, marine, bivalve mollusks of the family Ostreidae, having an irregularly shaped shell, occurring on the bottom or adhering to rocks or other objects in shallow water.
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the oyster-shaped bit of dark meat in the front hollow of the side bone of a fowl.
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Slang. a closemouthed or uncommunicative person, especially one who keeps secrets well.
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something from which a person may extract or derive advantage.
The world is my oyster.
verb (used without object)
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oysters,
present (3rd person singular)
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oystered,
past participle, past
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oystering
present participle
noun
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any edible marine bivalve mollusc of the genus Ostrea, having a rough irregularly shaped shell and occurring on the sea bed, mostly in coastal waters
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( as modifier )
oyster farm
oyster knife
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any of various similar and related molluscs, such as the pearl oyster and the saddle oyster ( Anomia ephippium )
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the oyster-shaped piece of dark meat in the hollow of the pelvic bone of a fowl
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something from which advantage, delight, profit, etc, may be derived
the world is his oyster
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informal a very uncommunicative person
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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oystersimple
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oysterssimple
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have oysteredperfect
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has oysteredperfect
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am oysteringprogressive
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are oysteringprogressive
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is oysteringprogressive
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have been oysteringperfect progressive
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has been oysteringperfect progressive
Past
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oysteredsimple
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had oysteredperfect
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was oysteringprogressive
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were oysteringprogressive
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had been oysteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of oyster
1325–75; Middle English oistre < Middle French < Latin ostrea < Greek óstreon; see ostracize
Explanation
An oyster is an animal that lives in the sea, a rough-shelled mollusk. To find a pearl inside an oyster, you first have to find a "pearl oyster" — a rare cousin of the oysters people commonly eat. You can usually tell you've found an oyster on the beach because its shell is bumpy and irregular, unlike the smoother clams or mussels you might see. There are few kinds of oysters that are edible (both cooked and raw), and many others that aren't. You may have heard the expression "the word ls your oyster," which is one of Shakespeare's many linguistic inventions; he means the world is yours to seize, open, and use as you wish.
Vocabulary lists containing oyster
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Example Sentences
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See Examples For:
For the next couple of weeks, she’d couch surf until ultimately sleeping in her van, waking up early to wait tables at an oyster bar on Sunset Boulevard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
But even maps couldn’t solve a perennial annoyance: The oyster beds would vanish.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Other artefacts found there included pottery, animal bones and oyster shells.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
There was one exception, a blue-collar oyster farmer and Marine veteran named Graham Platner.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
In the narrow street the dark houses of the village gave us some shelter from the wind, but the water of the Bay was already washing across the crushed oyster shells.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
“Dressing up oysters isn’t Breckenridge,” said Marissa Frutchey, senior director of the resort’s mountain dining.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
"If someone has oysters they'll bring them along," added the 32-year-old communications specialist, who had been made redundant as a result of the blaze.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
It is a popular diving location and known for its oysters and seafood.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Fish, mobile snails, sea urchins, and bivalves such as clams, oysters, and mussels all require faster metabolisms to support movement and, in many cases, predatory lifestyles.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
“How do you suppose the oysters will be this summer?”
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
Ms. Gunderson is also well served by much of the cast, particularly Mr. McNall, an Off Broadway treasure who was until recently oystered away at the Pearl Theater.
From New York Times ● Jul. 25, 2017
He made a living through clamming and oystering but also ran a small business called “Better Tree Service.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 8, 2024
Eastport Elementary’s logo is a skipjack, an oystering boat.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 25, 2020
Hartsfield has been reduced to oystering part time, making the rest of his living fishing for shrimp.
From Reuters ● Feb. 21, 2020
People still earned a living mostly from fishing, oystering, and trapping.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 25, 2019
There were only a few more days of oystering left that winter of ’44.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
