sprat
Americannoun
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sprats,
plural
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sprat
plural
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a species of herring, Clupea sprattus, of the eastern North Atlantic.
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a small or inconsequential person or thing.
noun
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a small marine food fish, Clupea sprattus, of the NE Atlantic Ocean and North Sea: family Clupeidae (herrings) See also brisling
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any of various small or young herrings
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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
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:
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 sprat or a mackerel maybe?’ ses he.
From The Whale and the Grasshopper And other Fables by Seumas O'Brien
An illustration shows a Buster Keaton-eyed puffin with a beakful of sardines or sprats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The Severn Estuary is home to huge numbers of sprats and salmon, and the twaite shad, a protected migrating species which spawns in the tributaries of the River Severn.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026
The Bristol Channel is home to salmon, eels, herring, sprats, and dozens of protected marine species.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2024
It can also be made with salt-cured fish, and modern cooks often use sprats in tomato sauce, a popular pantry staple of tiny herring canned in a purée that tastes a bit like cocktail sauce.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2022
They feed on herrings, sprats, mollusca, worms, and small shell-fish, are very voracious, and have excellent digestions.
From Natural History in Anecdote Illustrating the nature, habits, manners and customs of animals, birds, fishes, reptiles, etc., etc., etc. by Various
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.
