shad

[ shad ]
/ ʃæd /

noun, plural (especially collectively) shad, (especially referring to two or more kinds or species) shads.

a deep-bodied herring, Alosa sapidissima, of Europe and North America, that migrates up streams to spawn, used for food.
any other fish of the genus Alosa or related genera.
any of several unrelated fishes.

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Origin of shad

before 1050; Old English sceadd (not recorded in ME)

Words nearby shad

shackle, shackleton, shacko, shackup, shacky, shad, shadberry, shadbolt, shadbush, shadchan, shaddai
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Example sentences from the Web for shad

British Dictionary definitions for shad

shad
/ (ʃæd) /

noun plural shad or shads

any of various herring-like food fishes of the genus Alosa and related genera, such as A. alosa (allis shad) of Europe, that migrate from the sea to freshwater to spawn: family Clupeidae (herrings)
any of various similar but unrelated fishes

Word Origin for shad

Old English sceadd; related to Norwegian skadd, German Schade shad, Old Irish scatān herring, Latin scatēre to well up
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