noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The egg case of skate, shark or ratfish; a mermaid's purse.
2. 2
   Alternative form of sea puss (“dangerous current”). alt-of, alternative, rare
3. 3
   the seaward undercurrent created after waves have broken on the shore wordnet
4. 4
   The sea bean Dioclea reflexa.

Synonyms

All synonyms

devil's pursemermaid's pursesea pursesea pusssea-poosesea-puss

Etymology

Etymology 1

Named because it is shaped like a small purse.

Etymology 2

Alteration of sea puss.

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