razorfish

English

Alternative forms

• razor-fish

Etymology

razor +‎ fish

Noun

razorfish (plural razorfishes or razorfish)

1. Any of various not closely related fish, including those of the genera Aeoliscus, Centriscus, and Xyrichtys.
2. The razor clam.
   • 1934, Leonard Robert Brightwell, On the Seashore, page 30:

     We must dig hard to get the big “Razor-fish"—a clam with a shell that looks like an old-fashioned razor case, but open at either end. Fisher boys get the razor clam by pushing a kind of corkscrew into the sand […]

   • 2007 May 27, Paul Gray, “To See You Again”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     They swam, and scrambled together along the cliffs, and waded in the river, and fished, and dug holes in the mud, and stared at the degenerate sea squirts, and collected buckets full of mermaid’s purses, and captured razorfish and cockles.”