starfish

starfish

English

Etymology

star +‎ fish

a starfish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɑː(ɹ)fɪʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

starfish (plural starfishes or starfish)

1. Any of various asteroids or other echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.
2. (obsolete) Any many-armed or tentacled sea invertebrate, whether cnidarian, echinoderm, or cephalopod.
   • 1755, Erik Pontoppidan, trans. Isaac Kimbler, Explanation of the Plate of Uncommon Star Fish, Extracted from the Natural History of Norway

     But the largest of the star-fish kind is that sea monster called kruken, kraken or krabben. [...] As this enormous sea-animal in all probability may be reckoned of the polype, or of the star-fish, kind, it seems that the parts which are seen rising at its pleasure, and are called arms, are properly the tentacula, or feeding instruments, called horns as well as arms.

3. (slang) A woman (or, less commonly, a gay man) who reluctantly takes part in sexual intercourse, and lies on the back while spreading the limbs.
4. (vulgar, slang, usually in translations of Japanese pornography) The anus.

   Synonym: chocolate starfish

   • 2021, Sophie Palmer, Hot Wife: Collection of Explicit Erotic Short Stories:

     Hands separated my ass cheeks while some pervert rimmed my puckered brown starfish.

Synonyms

• (various echinoderms): sea star, asteroid
• (inactive sexual partner): cold fish, dead fish

Translations

various echinoderms

Arabic: نَجْمَةُ اَلْبَحْرِ‎ f (najmatu l-baḥri) Gulf Arabic: نجمة البحر‎ f (najmat il-baḥar) Armenian: ծովաստղ (hy) (covastł) Assamese: তৰামাছ (toramas) Asturian: estrella de mar (ast) f Azerbaijani: dəniz ulduzu Basque: itsas izar Belarusian: марска́я зо́рка f (marskája zórka) Bengali: তারামাছ (taramachô) Bulgarian: морска́ звезда́ f (morská zvezdá) Burmese: ရေလက်ဝါး (my) (relak-wa:) Catalan: estrella de mar f Chinese: Mandarin: 海星 (zh) (hǎixīng) Crimean Tatar: deñiz yıldızı Czech: hvězdice f Danish: søstjerne (da) c Dutch: zeester (nl) f Esperanto: marstelo Estonian: meritäht Faroese: krossfiskur m Finnish: meritähti (fi) French: étoile de mer (fr) f Galician: estrela de mar f, cercela f, estrelamar (gl) f, gradicela f Georgian: ზღვის ვარსკვლავი (zɣvis varsḳvlavi) German: Seestern (de) m Greek: αστερίας (el) m (asterías) Hawaiian: peʻa Hebrew: כּוֹכַב יָם‎ m (kokháv yam) Hindi: तारा मछली m (tārā machlī) Hungarian: tengeri csillag (hu) Icelandic: krossfiskur (is) f, sæstjarna (is) f Indonesian: bintang laut Irish: crosóg f, crosóg mhara f Italian: stella di mare f, stella marina f Japanese: ヒトデ (ja) (hitode), 海星 (ja) (ひとで, hitode) (also written: 人手 (ja), 海盤車) Khmer: ផ្កាយសមុទ្រ (phkaay saʼmot), ក្រ (km) (krɑɑ) Korean: 불가사리 (ko) (bulgasari), 해성(海星) (haeseong) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: stêra deryayê f Lao: ດາວທະເລ (lo) (dāo tha lē) Latin: stella marina f Latvian: jūras zvaigzne f Lithuanian: jūrų žvaigždė f Macedonian: мо́рска ѕве́зда f (mórska dzvézda) Malagasy: kintandranomasina Malay: tapak sulaiman Maori: papatangaroa, pātangaroa, pātangatanga, pekapeka Mongolian: далайн од (mn) (dalajn od) Navajo: sǫʼ łóóʼ Norman: êtaile dé mé f Norwegian: sjøstjerne (no) c Persian: ستاره دریایی‎ (setâre-ye daryâyi) Polish: rozgwiazda (pl) f Portuguese: estrela-do-mar (pt) f Romanian: stea de mare f, stea-de-mare (ro) f Russian: морска́я звезда́ (ru) f (morskája zvezdá) Samoan: please add this translation if you can Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: морска звезда f, звездача f Roman: morska zvijezda f, zvezdača (sh) f Slovak: hviezdovka f, morská hviezdica f, hviezdica f Slovene: morska zvezda (sl) f Spanish: estrella de mar (es) f Swedish: sjöstjärna (sv) c Tagalog: isdambituin, bituin-dagat Tetum: please add this translation if you can Thai: ดาวทะเล (daao-tá-lee), ปลาดาว (th) (bplaa-daao) Tongan: alamea Turkish: denizyıldızı (tr) Ukrainian: морська́ зі́рка f (morsʹká zírka) Uzbek: dengiz yulduzi Vietnamese: sao biển Yiddish: ים־שטערן‎ m (yam-shtern)

Verb

starfish (third-person singular simple present starfishes, present participle starfishing, simple past and past participle starfished)

1. (intransitive) To assume a splayed-out shape, like that of a starfish.
   • 1981, Kit Reed, Magic Time (page 229)

     "Oh you damn bastard, why won't you let anybody love you," and then, before I could stop her, she threw herself between us and the glowing suitcase, starfishing in the blaze of light as he blew up.

   • 2020, Becky Manawatu, Auē, page 95:

     The freckle on her eye starfished out and the sun began to move over her face like it does below the surface of water.

2. (transitive) To form into a splayed-out shape, like that of a starfish.
   • 2011, Polly Williams, It Happened One Summer:

     The sea roared up her nostrils, tunnelled into her ears, and flung her forward, then back, the current pulling her fingers apart, starfishing her hands.

See also

• Starfish site