Shrimp

//ʃɹɪmp// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of many swimming, often edible, crustaceans, chiefly of the infraorder Caridea or the suborder Dendrobranchiata, with slender legs, long whiskers and a long abdomen. countable, uncountable

    "1851, "A Lady of Charleston" (Sarah Rutledge), The Carolina Housewife, 2013, unnumbered page, Butter well a deep dish, upon which place a thick layer of pounded biscuit; having picked and boiled your shrimps, put them upon the biscuit; a layer of shrimps, with small pieces of butter, a little pepper, mace or nutmeg."

  2. 2
    Acronym of sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
  3. 3
    A player, supporter or other person connected with Morecambe Football Club.
  4. 4
    small slender-bodied chiefly marine decapod crustaceans with a long tail and single pair of pincers; many species are edible wordnet
  5. 5
    The flesh of such crustaceans. uncountable
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    any of various edible decapod crustaceans wordnet
  2. 7
    A small, puny or unimportant person. countable, slang, uncountable
  3. 8
    disparaging terms for small people wordnet
  4. 9
    Synonym of butterface countable, slang, uncommon, uncountable
  5. 10
    A small penis. countable, derogatory, slang, uncountable

    "shrimp dick"

Verb
  1. 1
    To fish for shrimp. intransitive

    "Fishing, shrimping and crabbing are permitted on designated areas of the refuge subject to the following conditions:[…]"

  2. 2
    fish for shrimp wordnet
  3. 3
    To contract; to shrink.

Synonyms

All synonyms
prawnprawnrunta nobodya nothingangle

Example

More examples

"She's made shrimp dumplings and added shiitakes with Sichuan pepper."

Etymology

From Middle English schrimpe (“shrimp, puny person”), possibly from or related to Middle Low German schrempen (“to wrinkle”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaz (“shrivelled”), from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną (“to shrivel”), from Proto-Indo-European *skremb-, *skr̥mb-. See also Middle High German schrimpf (“a scratch, minor wound”), Norwegian skramp (“thin horse, thin man”); also Old English sċrimman (“to shrink”) and scrimp, Middle High German schrimpfen (“to shrink, dry up”), Swedish skrympa (“to shrink”); also Lithuanian skrembti (“to crust over, stiffen”), and possibly Albanian shkrumb (“embers, ashes; crumble”).

Related phrases

Aesop shrimpakiami paste shrimpalpheid shrimpblue shrimpbrine shrimpbrown shrimpclam shrimpcleaner shrimpclown mantis shrimpcoonstripe shrimpdaggerblade grass shrimpdrunken shrimp

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