porcupine fish

British  

noun

1. Also called: globefish.  any of various plectognath fishes of the genus Diodon and related genera, of temperate and tropical seas, having a body that is covered with sharp spines and can be inflated into a globe: family Diodontidae

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Example Sentences

There is an assortment of taxidermied specimens, including a mouse and an olive-backed thrush; eggs from a brown pelican; a porcupine fish; and the jaw of a crocodile.

From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2014

A green and yellow octopus, an irridescent bronze colored fish found living inside a giant red sea-cucumber, butterfly fish, trigger fish and porcupine fish were procured as well as whole colonies of coral and sponges.

From Time Magazine Archive

All this while our trolling gear was in tow: the boy's a "phantom minnow" bristling with barbs, a veritable porcupine fish; mine a fluted spoon.

From In New England Fields and Woods by Robinson, Rowland E. (Evans)

Protected in their spined shells, which they captured from the schools of porcupine fish that swarmed in Penguin Deep, they gathered sea vegetation from the higher levels and trapped sea creatures.

From Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930 by Bates, Harry