gar
noun
any predaceous freshwater fish of the genus Lepisosteus, of North America, covered with hard, diamond-shaped scales and having long jaws with needlelike teeth.
Showing results for gar.
Search instead for
garring.
gar
1 American
[gahr]
/ gɑr /
noun
-
gar,
plural
-
gars
plural
-
Also called garfish, garpike. any predaceous freshwater fish of the genus Lepisosteus, of North America, covered with hard, diamond-shaped scales and having long jaws with needlelike teeth.
gar
2
American
[gahr]
/ gɑr /
verb (used with object)
garred,
garring
-
Scot. to compel or force (someone) to do something.
-
Scot. and North England Obsolete. to do, perform, or cause.
gar.
3
American
abbreviation
G.A.R.
4
American
abbreviation
gar
1
British
/ ɡɑː /
noun
gar
2
British
/ ɡɑːr /
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gar1
1755–65, shortened form of garfish
Origin of gar2
1250–1300; Middle English geren, garren, gairen < Old Norse gera to do, make; akin to Old English gearwian to prepare
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:
Inside the coprolite, scientists identified several feathers, tiny scales from a gar fish, and leg bones belonging to a hesperornithiform bird.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
Wading in a crystal clear Florida river, Mr Szabo photographed a female longnose gar alongside several males during the mating season.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2025
The lubricating proteins were abundant in the fish’s jaws and in the fins of zebra fish, gar, and sticklebacks, the scientists reported.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 25, 2024
Local authorities identified it as an alligator gar — a torpedo-shaped freshwater fish with razor-sharp teeth — and launched an operation to capture it.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 25, 2022
There were eels, gar, carp, river carpsuckers, gizzard shad, and buffalo.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
"It is like enough, mon gar., as things go."
From The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Hola, mon gar.," said Aylward, seating himself upon a boulder by his side.
From The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
About 250 arts professionals attended the symposium, presented in the G.A.R.
From Chicago Tribune ● Jun. 8, 2011
The Red Cross rushed him to Washoe Medical Center, where doctors went to work, nurses stood over him day & night, and the Ladies' Auxiliary of the G.A.R. sent bushels of flowers.
From Time Magazine Archive
Potentially, they are a pressure group which can make the G.A.R. and American Legion look like Youth Day at City Hall.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hanging in the wreckage of his plane off Plymouth Beach in 1912, he saw help coming: two old codgers in G.A.R. uniforms in a rowboat.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was on Decoration Day, in a G.A.R. uniform, in the middle of the parade.
From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
Prehistoric-looking fish called gars, which have the slowest rate of molecular evolution of all jawed vertebrates, are the most striking examples.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 8, 2024
Alligator gars, native to the Americas, were introduced to China as pet fish.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 25, 2022
I always loved the huge alligator snapping turtle, watch your hands, but the huge gars, alligator gars and catfish are gone forever.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2018
The gars, a family of fish with long bodies, extended jaws, sharp teeth, and hard scales, has been on the planet for at least 100 million years.
From The Verge ● Dec. 20, 2015
Some of the beg gars look too young to have even taken the Trial.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
Princie, as he ca'd him, ga'e a gley roond wi' the white o' his e'e that garred Sandy keep a gude yaird clear o' him.
From My Man Sandy by J. B. Salmond
I cudna help frae notisin' hoo it garred a'body sit straucht up.
From My Man Sandy by J. B. Salmond
This garred a' the billies sit back in their seats, an' dicht their moos wi' their jeckit sleeves, an' host.
From My Man Sandy by J. B. Salmond
From behind the closed inner door of the cothouse there came a high-pitched angry cry that garred the very blood run chill as ice in Margaret Comline's veins.
From Deep Moat Grange by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
"Fiddlers' dogs and fleshers' flees come to feasts unbidden," said Mysie; but Sandy gae her a glower that garred her steek her moo gey quick.
From My Man Sandy by J. B. Salmond
The deil's in you, Monkbarns, for garring odds and evens meet.
From The Antiquary — Volume 02 by Sir Walter Scott
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
