shrimp
Americannoun
-
shrimps,
plural
-
shrimp
plural
-
any of several small, long-tailed, chiefly marine crustaceans of the decapod suborder Natania, certain species of which are used as food.
-
Informal. a diminutive or insignificant person.
verb (used without object)
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shrimps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shrimped,
past participle, past
-
shrimping
present participle
adjective
-
(of food) made with or containing shrimp.
shrimp salad.
-
of or relating to shrimp or their catching, processing, and marketing.
a shrimp boat.
noun
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any of various chiefly marine decapod crustaceans of the genus Crangon and related genera, having a slender flattened body with a long tail and a single pair of pincers
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any of various similar but unrelated crustaceans, such as the opossum shrimp and mantis shrimp
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Also called: freshwater shrimp. any of various freshwater shrimplike amphipod crustaceans of the genus Gammarus, esp G. pulex
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Also called: sand shrimp. any of various shrimplike amphipod crustaceans of the genus Gammarus, esp G. locusta See also opossum shrimp
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informal a diminutive person, esp a child
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
shrimpsimple
-
shrimpssimple
-
have shrimpedperfect
-
has shrimpedperfect
-
am shrimpingprogressive
-
are shrimpingprogressive
-
is shrimpingprogressive
-
have been shrimpingperfect progressive
-
has been shrimpingperfect progressive
Past
-
shrimpedsimple
-
had shrimpedperfect
-
was shrimpingprogressive
-
were shrimpingprogressive
-
had been shrimpingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shrimp
1300–50; Middle English shrimpe crustacean, puny person; akin to Middle High German schrimpfen to contract, Old English scrimman to shrink
Explanation
A shrimp is a small crustacean that lives on the ocean floor. You may be most familiar with the shrimp you order at a seafood restaurant, but there are over 2,000 species of shrimp in the world. While many people think of shrimp as a delicious part of a pasta dish or seafood buffet, there's much more to these tiny animals. Shrimp are invertebrates, with hard exoskeletons, antennae, and eyes on long stalks. They live at the bottom of the ocean, where they filter sand and particles for algae and plankton. Shrimp probably comes from the Old Norse skreppa, "thin person," and fittingly, shrimp is also a mildly derogatory term for a small person.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Photorealistic renderings of shrimp that resemble life preservers and chicken parts with the texture of dinosaur skin have elicited disgust and nausea, with an undercurrent of existential, eldritch horror.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
When they can’t effectively capture patterns and nuance, models rely on general rules-of-thumb understanding, such as “cooked shrimp appear roughly circular and have banded striations,” Schossau said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Sher voted against 1986 legislation that purported to open the way for a shrimp processing facility in West Sacramento.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
Rearing the snails - as well as other critically endangered invertebrates such as scarlet malachite beetles, ladybird spiders and tadpole shrimp - has become a family affair.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
The shrimp who falls asleep is carried off by the current.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
Scientists found seagrass meadows affected by excessive nutrients in the water - caused by sewage, fertilisers, manure and industry wastewater - had far fewer and less variety of small invertebrates like crabs, shrimps and snails.
From BBC ● May 2, 2026
That with a bite of the eggplant, which is really soft and almost souplike, and then with one of the shrimps.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2025
Trillions of fish, shrimps, amphipods, jellyfish, and squid rise to feed, using the cover of darkness to hide from predators.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 13, 2024
"It is conceivable that if we did the experiment on shrimps that had been exposed for a longer period or during critical stages in their life history, it would affect their sperm levels and quality."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2023
Crawling throughout the gardens were shrimps and crabs.
From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown
As a youngster, Jenkins shrimped with his father.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 22, 2021
“There’s no good price for shrimp, and sometimes there’s no catch,” said Robert Griffin, a retired Golden Meadow oil worker who shrimped in his youth.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 24, 2018
It is true, such things as these go for Wit so long as they continue in Latin; but what dismally shrimped things would they appear, if turned into English!
From An English Garner Critical Essays & Literary Fragments by Professor Thomas Seccombe Arber
When ur was a little chile ur shrimped with 'n! an' when ur was a gert maiden ur walked out with 'n!
From The Empire Annual for Girls, 1911 by A. R. (Augustus Robert) Buckland
Ms. Langlinais, who also owns a marketing business, grew up in a shrimping family in Biloxi, Miss., immersed in the elaborate world of Mardi Gras.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
The shrimping business was based mostly in Maine and produced small, pink shrimp that were a winter delicacy in New England and across the country.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2023
Dan Ellison started shrimping when he was 12, bringing a change of clothes on the boat so he could make it to school after early-morning outings.
From New York Times ● Aug. 31, 2023
People had been leaving Pointe-aux-Chenes for decades, driven out by frequent floods and the decline of the local shrimping industry, and enrollment at Pointe-aux-Chenes Elementary had fallen well below the district's target.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2023
“Reggie died in Georgia. According to Coach Douglas, he’d found work on a shrimping boat. There was an accident out in the water. He went overboard.”
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
