shrimp

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small sea creature with a shell and a long tail, often eaten as food.

   We had grilled shrimp for dinner.

2. 2
   verb

   To catch or fish for shrimp.

   The family goes shrimping along the coast every summer.

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 shkrum…

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