leister

American  

[lee-ster] / ˈli stər /

noun

1. a spearlike implement having three or more prongs, for use in spearing fish.

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verb (used with object)

1. to spear (fish) with a leister.

leister British  

/ ˈliːstə /

noun

1. a spear with three or more prongs for spearing fish, esp salmon

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verb

1. (tr) to spear (a fish) with a leister

Etymology

Origin of leister

1525–35; < Old Norse ljōstr salmon-spear, akin to ljōsta to strike

Example Sentences

Bait fishing for salmon, and the darker, though torch-illumined, mysteries of the leister, occupy the terminal chapters.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 333, July 1843 by Various

Yet when anon he came to cast this leister at the muckle kipper, "the 14 lb. waster stottit off his back as if he had been a bag o' wool."

From Stories of the Border Marches by Lang, Jeanie

The leister used in "sunning" or in "burning the water" differed somewhat in shape from the weapon with which Tam Purdie secured his big kipper.

From Stories of the Border Marches by Lang, Jeanie

This throwing leister was a heavy spear, or rather a heavy "graip," having five single-barbed prongs of unequal length but regularly graduated.

From Stories of the Border Marches by Lang, Jeanie

Fifteenth.—I think your leister requires a more rigorous definition.

From Essays in Natural History and Agriculture by Garnett, Thomas