adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The rocks, crushed shells, and other sea detritus that create an oyster bed, where oyster spawn can attach themselves; a collection of such detritus, accumulated on land, to drop in the sea to build up oyster beds. uncountable
2. 2
   An accumulation of small items of little current value -- materials, broken items, miscellaneous fasteners -- for possible future use. Maine, US, uncountable
3. 3
   Junk or debris. Maine, US, uncountable

Verb

1. 1
   To prepare an oyster bed with such (culch) attachments; to sort shellfish or fish catch by size -- most often oysters -- so as to throw back the smallest to grow bigger and breed.

Adjective

1. 1
   Location where potentially useful junk items are collected: culch corner, culch drawer, culch pile. Maine, US, not-comparable

Etymology

Uncertain.

Related phrases

oyster bed

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.