quahog

or qua·haug

[kwaw-hawg, -hog, kwoh-, koh-, kwuh-hawg, -hog]

See more synonyms for quahog on Thesaurus.com

noun

an edible clam, Venus (Mercenaria) mercenaria, inhabiting waters along the Atlantic coast, having a relatively thick shell.

Origin of quahog

1745–55, Americanism; < Narragansett (E spelling) poquaûhock

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for quahog

mollusk, littleneck, quahog, cherrystone

Examples from the Web for quahog

Contemporary Examples of quahog

Quahog is a rich world full of despicable, immoral, and implausibly selfish characters.
‘Family Guy’ Killed Off Brian Last Night. It Was the Right Move.
Kevin Fallon
November 25, 2013

Historical Examples of quahog

The 'neck' is a foot, and it's little because the quahog doesn't burrow deep.
The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries
Francis Rolt-Wheeler
It is to this family that the quahog or hard clam of our markets belongs.
The Animal World, A Book of Natural History
Theodore Wood
Quahog, kwa-hog′, n. the common round clam of the North American Atlantic coast.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R)
Various
The quahog is a thick-shelled, roundish mollusk with a distinctly heart-shaped outline when looked at endwise.
Zoology: The Science of Animal Life
Ernest Ingersoll
The former (Venus mercenaria) was called by the Indians "quahog," and is still so called in the Eastern states.
A Civic Biology
George William Hunter

British Dictionary definitions for quahog

quahog

noun

an edible clam, Venus (or Mercenaria) mercenaria, native to the Atlantic coast of North America, having a large heavy rounded shellAlso called: hard-shell clam, hard-shell, round clam Compare soft-shell clam

Word Origin for quahog

C18: from Narraganset, short for poquauhock, from pohkeni dark + hogki shell

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

Word Origin and History for quahog

1753 (quogue; Roger Williams had it as poquauhock, 1643), from an Algonquian language, perhaps Narragansett poquauhock or Pequot p'quaghhaug "hard clam."