cockfish
English
Alternative forms
- cock fish, cock-fish
Etymology
From cock + fish.
Noun
cockfish (plural cockfish)
- A male fish, especially a salmon or trout.
- 2005, Roderick Sutterby, Malcolm Greenhalgh, “Life in the Nursery”, in Atlantic Salmon: An Illustrated Natural History, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, →ISBN, page 23:
- Spawning fish on the redds. A henfish will often be attended by two or three cockfish – whilst displaying ritual combat between themselves, one cock will mate, others may follow [image caption]
- Synonym: cock
- Coordinate terms: hen, henfish
- A callorhinchid fish, Callorhinchus callorynchus, native to South America.
- 1996, Edgardo E. Di Gitlcomo, Maria Raquel Perier, “Feeding habits of cockfish, Callorhinchus callorhynchus (Holocephali: Callorhynchidae), in Patagonian waters (Argentina)”, in Marine and Freshwater Research, volume 47, number 6, DOI:, page 801:
- Morphology of the main digestive features of cockfish, Callorhinchus callorhynchus, is described and linked to feeding habits. […] The diet of the cockfish is compared with that of other holocephalans.
- Synonyms: elephantfish, American elephantfish
- A cyprinid fish, Hypselobarbus dubius, native to India.
- Synonym: Nilgiris barb