adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
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"Piſt. Why then the world's mine Oyſter, which I, with ſword will open."
"Cut remaining skin on back. Remove the oyster (choice dark meat in spoon-shaped bone on back) with the leg."
"Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster."
"He asked a major Chicago retailer with a large store in the heart of the city about the socioeconomic character of his customers. The man replied proudly that the entire range of economic classes was his oyster."
"Most Fishneck watermen oystered in winter, using the same small skiffs from which they potted crabs in summer. Sometimes two men oystered from the same boat or took along a son or younger brother to cull oysters (separate those of legal size from undersized ones and shell)."
"You need to top up your Oyster Card."
Any of certain marine bivalve mollusks, especially those of the family Ostreidae (the true oysters), usually found adhering to rocks or other fixed objects in shallow water along the seacoasts, or in brackish water in the mouth of rivers.
Common synonyms include: bivalve, blue point, breast, chicken foot, clam, coquillage.
You need to top up your Oyster Card.
Pronounced /ˈɔɪ.stə/.
From Middle English oystre, from Old English ostre, reinforced or superseded by Anglo-Norman oistre, which is from Old French oistre, uistre (compare modern French huître); both lines (Old English and Old French) from Latin ostrea, from Ancient Greek ὄστρεον (óstreon). Doublet of ostro (“a purple dye”).
Uncertain. Perhaps a nickname for someone who cultivated or sold oysters.