crayfish
Americannoun
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crayfish,
plural
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crayfishes
plural
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Also called crawdad, crawdaddy. any freshwater decapod crustacean of the genera Astacus and Cambarus, closely related to but smaller than the lobsters.
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any of several similar marine crustaceans, especially the spiny lobster.
noun
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any freshwater decapod crustacean of the genera Astacus and Cambarus, resembling a small lobster
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any of various similar crustaceans, esp the spiny lobster
Usage
What does crayfish mean? A crayfish is a freshwater crustacean related to the lobster but smaller. Crayfish is also used as the name of several similar saltwater crustaceans, especially the spiny lobster (also called the rock lobster). The plural of crayfish can be crayfish or crayfishes. When used as a plural, crayfish typically refers to them collectively, while crayfishes usually refers to two or more kinds or species (but this isn’t always the case). Crayfish aren’t fish—they’re shellfish. Other types of crustaceans include crabs, lobsters, and shrimp. There are several different species of both freshwater and saltwater crayfish. Freshwater ones are also referred to by the names crawfish, crawdad, and crawdaddy. Use of these terms varies by region. Example: When I was a kid, we used to catch crayfish in the creek.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of crayfish
1350–1400; alteration (by folk etymology) of Middle English crevis < Middle French crevice < Old High German krebiz crab 1
Compare meaning
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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.
See Examples For:
Environmental specialist Peter Cunningham told AFP that potential sediment plumes could impact rocky shoreline habitats, crayfish spawning and breeding species.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
We see Adrian at the film’s beginning as a small child, catching crayfish and other underwater creatures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
These ecosystem changes happen on a local scale, of course, but crayfish conservation and invasion mitigation have become bigger-picture challenges, often requiring transnational coordination.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2024
Neither overfishing nor pollution, writes David Wilcove in his book The Condor’s Shadow, “has endangered as many species of fish, mussels, amphibians, and crayfish as has habitat destruction.”
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2024
After an avocado salad lunch on the day Joe Mondragon first began to irrigate his beanfield, Ladd Devine’s starched and prissified personal secretary, Emerson Lapp, scuttled like a nervous crayfish into the Devines’ private den.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Ulenspiegel, wishing to know why he was mimicking the crayfishes in this fashion, planting himself before him and smiling, jumped in step with him.
From The Legend of Ulenspiegel, Volume I (of 2) And Lamme Goedzak, and their Adventures Heroical, Joyous and Glorious in the Land of Flanders and Elsewhere by Charles Th?odore Henri de Coster
The crayfishes would leave these little retreats whenever disturbed, and swim away down stream out of sight.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884 by Various
Name three in which they differ.How are crayfishes caught for market?
From A Guide for the Study of Animals by Frederic Lucas
Small crayfishes are desirable to show locomotion in water.
From A Guide for the Study of Animals by Frederic Lucas
They reached without incident the famous Grindstone Ford of Bayou Pierre, where crayfishes had destroyed a pioneer dam.
From The Paths of Inland Commerce; a chronicle of trail, road, and waterway by Archer Butler Hulbert
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.
