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definitions

horse mackerel

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noun

bluefin tuna.
jack mackerel.

Origin of horse mackerel

First recorded in 1695–1705
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for horse mackerel

Historical Examples of horse mackerel

  • An oceanic fish, well-known as the bonito or horse-mackerel.

    The Sailor's Word-Book

    William Henry Smyth

  • An old Cornish name for the tunny, or a scomber, larger than the horse-mackerel.

    The Sailor's Word-Book

    William Henry Smyth

  • The horse-mackerel had regained consciousness and was making the fact known.

    Motor Matt's Race

    Stanley R. Matthews

  • What's that you're grumbling there, like a dead northeaster, you horse-mackerel?

    The Pilot

    J. Fenimore Cooper

  • And the motorboats have frightened all the horse-mackerel away.

British Dictionary definitions for horse mackerel

horse mackerel

noun

Also called: scad a mackerel-like carangid fish, Trachurus of European Atlantic waters, with a row of bony scales along the lateral lineSometimes called (US): saurel
any of various large tunnies or related fishes
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