sprat

American  

[sprat] / spræt /

noun

plural

sprats,

plural

sprat

1. a species of herring, Clupea sprattus, of the eastern North Atlantic.

2. a small or inconsequential person or thing.

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sprat British  

/ spræt /

noun

1. a small marine food fish, Clupea sprattus, of the NE Atlantic Ocean and North Sea: family Clupeidae (herrings) See also brisling

2. any of various small or young herrings

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Etymology

Origin of sprat

1590–1600; variant of earlier sprot, Middle English, Old English (cognate with German Sprott ); apparently same word as Old English sprott sprout, twig (for the two meanings cf. sprag ²); akin to Old English spryttan to sprout

Example Sentences

The wild fish studied included Pacific and Peruvian anchoveta, and Atlantic herring, mackerel, sprat and blue whiting -- which are all marketed and consumed as seafood.

From Science Daily • Mar. 20, 2024

In their flat, over a pile of sprat sandwiches, she explains that her eldest son is still in Ukraine expecting to be called up to fight any day.

From BBC • May 30, 2023

The frigate was determined to steal the tern’s meal, the tern equally determined not to part with its hard-earned sprat.

From New York Times • Oct. 8, 2015

Researchers can spend years unpicking the factors that control the numbers of Maine lobster, or sprat in the Baltic Sea.

From Nature • Mar. 16, 2015

A smaller man might have stopped to revenge, and to cook a sprat have passed all Paris through the net.

From The Snowball by Weyman, Stanley John