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devilfish

American  
[dev-uhl-fish] / ˈdɛv əlˌfɪʃ /

noun

  • devilfish,
    plural
  • devilfishes
    plural
  1. manta.

  2. octopus.


devilfish British  
/ ˈdɛvəlˌfɪʃ /

noun

  1. Also called: devil ray.  another name for manta

  2. another name for octopus

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of devilfish

First recorded in 1700–10; devil + fish

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:

Trapping wild devilfish could support modest demand, he says, but to scale up, they might ultimately need to be farmed—carefully.

From Scientific American Oct. 7, 2022

A devilfish painted by Georg Forster in the 1770s.Credit:

From Nature Dec. 18, 2018

Caswell swims down several fathoms and dispatches the devilfish, slitting its ink sac with one blow of his trusty fish knife.

From Time Magazine Archive

Reason given: seals were eating squid and devilfish sought by Japan's fishing fleet.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was good to be on the sea after the winter storms, with the new spear in my hand, but all the morning as I hunted the giant devilfish I kept thinking of Rontu.

From "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell

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