alewife
noun
a North American fish, Alosa pseudoharengus, resembling a small shad.
alewives
-
pluralof alewife.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They learned a similar situation had occurred in the Great Lakes in the 1960s, when lake trout had exhibited similar behaviors after gorging on alewives, another fish chock-full of thiaminase.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2023
"Those dams are preventing other native species like American shad, alewives, blueback herring and American eel from accessing large amounts of historic habitat," says Burrows.
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2021
Witches in tall black hats, also called alewives, brewsters and brewesses, tended caldrons they stirred with twisted twigs and kept cats to ward off rats.
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2020
Little herrings called alewives swim through the brownish water.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 13, 2019
So numerous were the fish, and so driven, that when mischievous boys walled off the stream with stones the alewives would leap the barrier—silver bodies gleaming in the sun— and proceed upstream.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
